Science & Engineering World

STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths), dominates today’s world. Our TV, newspapers and social media are full of stories dependent on these disciplines. Without STEM today’s world would be a very different place. In our group, we want to broaden our knowledge in these areas and try to understand some of the factors that are shaping our world and its future. In each session we have a speaker on a relevant and interesting topic followed by questions and discussion. Our speakers come from among the members of the group or are external volunteers from research, industry, or allied fields. 2023/24 topics have ranged from the history of crude oil, to satellites and their impact on our world; and from the importance of energy storage methods to support net zero targets, to Futurology and how science fiction forecast the future of technology (For a list of all past topics and our emerging programme for 2024-25, visit sewyork.blogspot.com or send us a m...

  Date Subject Speaker September 09 Connecting to the UK National Grid. UK HVDC links David Moore September 23 Healthcare and the environment Matthew Taylor October 14 Homo Erectus to Romans Conrad Plowman Developments in Microscopy Rod Moreton October 28 How to discover a new drug and bring it to patients Liz Hamilton November 11 A history of the Boulby Potash Mine Neil Rowley November 25 How big is the World? How we came to measure the Earth Alan Hunton December 9 A novel approach to automated irrigation. Rod Moody January 13 What has Chemistry every done for us? Dr Annie Hodgson January 27 Inside the magnetic maze. The world of MRI scanning Cath Blackete...

  In this talk, David Moore will outline the typical issues involved in developing the UK's HVDC Links and arranging connection to the UK's National Grid. From the regulatory environment to the technical options and environmental and practical aspects involved.

    Healthcare accounts for 5% of the world's CO2 emissions. In the UK the National Health Service has pledged to become 'net zero' by 2045 but little evidence has been put forward as to how that will be achieved and whether it will impact on the service or the population's health. In this presentation Matthew Taylor will outline how healthcare decisions are made and how the inclusion of environmental sustainability outcomes might affect those decisions.

  Homo Erectus to the Romans – mud to aqueducts What did the Neanderthals do for the Romans? In this talk, Conrad Plowman will range from mammoths through to mud, plaster, mortar and concrete. Construction materials used during the first two million years (or so).

  This talk by Rod Moreton will cover the history of microscopy, from Animalcules to Atomic Force.

  In this two-part session, James Lees from the University of York will talk to us about how the internet has changed our world. In the first session, "You're stupid and so am I" he will talk about science, experts and conspiracy theories, and in the second part "Cryptorealities" he will cover the problems arising from cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and other WEB3 projects.

  Neil Boulby will cover the history of Boulby Potash Mine including a look at some previous mines in the area. He will review the development and operation of Boulby potash mine from its inception in the 1960s to its conversion to polyhalite mining in 2015. The mine is built on the site of earlier alum and ironstone mines and these will be viewed along with the construction of Port Mulgrave and the narrow gauge Grinkle Railway.

  In this talk, Alan Hunton will explain how ancient civilisations had little idea of the size of our Earth, nor how far it was from the Moon and other heavenly bodies. Greek philosophers and scientists working in Alexandria in Egypt during the first millennium BC began to unravel the puzzle and within a short period of time had discovered the size of the Earth and Moon and the distances between them. There was also a strong consensus that the Earth revolved around the Sun at this time. The invasion of Egypt by the Romans and the influence of Aristotle stalled any further progress and it was not until the seventeenth century that Galileo and Kepler could determine distances to the Sun and the other planets using the earliest telescopes as aids. Finding the density of the Earth was solved by rambling in the Scottish highlands and careful measurements by Henry Cavendish.  

  Rod Moody will talk about his 2019 project near Scarborough to irrigate16 vegetable planting areas in a one acre garden. The project went into service in the spring of that year and has continued to work well up to the present time. The talk will start with a description of the microcontroller and other hardware that would be equally suitable for any horticultural or home automation project. It will then largely focus on the novel approach used to determine soil moisture level without the need for physical soil moisture sensors. Instead a predictive algorithm that uses rainfall climatic temperature and humidity to derive the soil moisture level of each planting area.

      Dr Annie Hodgson, Department of Chemistry University of York will answer the question, "What has Chemistry ever done for us?" Questions include: "Who is responsible for a doubling of human life expectancy?"  "Who has revolutionised Olympic and Paralympic sport?" "Who has enabled us to watch television on our mobile phones?" "Who can tell how old archaeological remains are?" "Who can predict what will happen to our planet in the future?" The answer to all of these questions is chemists. Find out how, in this whistle-stop tour through the world of chemistry.

  Perhaps you have had an MRI scan, many of us have. The noise, the need to remove magnetic materials, the need to remain still, the amazing images. In this talk, Cath Blacketer will explain what the machine is doing and how it works. She will look at the physics behind Magnetic Resonance Imaging and how it emerged from an analytical technique used in research labs since 1950. 

  African Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, is a neglected tropical disease that affects human and a wide range of mammalian hosts. Although it is mostly geographically restricted to Africa, cases have been detected in every continent due to increasing tourism to endemic countries. This parasitic disease is caused by Trypanosoma brucei species parasites and is transmitted by the bite of infected tsetse flies. In this talk, we will review the epidemiology, clinical presentation, current diagnostics and treatments of the disease. We will also discuss my current PhD project, which involves identifying the role of parasite-secreted proteins in the establishment of sleeping sickness and tissue invasion, as well as their mechanism of release.

In this engaging talk, Debejit Dey from the University of York, will explore the intricate relationship between our diet and the gut microbiome, highlighting how the foods we consume directly influence the diverse community of microorganisms living in our intestines. We'll discuss the role of fiber, fermented foods, and plant-based diets in promoting a healthy microbiome, while also examining the detrimental effects of processed foods and sugars. Members will learn about the microbiome's impact on digestion, immunity, and overall health, emphasizing the importance of nurturing these microbial allies.

    In this talk, Liz will cover how drug discovery works, from deciding on a biological target, to selecting the most active agent which hits that target and testing it for pre-clinical safety. She will look at upscale of drug production (from test-tube to giant steel vessels) and where that occurs. An outline of the clinical trails process will show how safety and activity of a candidate drug is measured in humans. Finally she will cover Registration of new drugs and the work needed for acceptance by governments and local clinical practice. The failure-rate for candidate drugs at each of these stages will also be discussed.

In this talk, David Worsley will compare 20 science fiction dystopias which were first published in the 20th century, 17 of which have been adapted as films. Evidence will be assessed as to whether their predictions are coming true, whether this means we are living in a dystopian society, and if so, different theories as to why this has happened.