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 for discussion with an introduction either by a group member or occasionally by an external guest speaker. We also spend the first 20 minutes discussing unrelated media news that members have noted during the previous month. We often go rather deep into some subjects, but it is never dull and surprisingly we get a lot of laughs. 

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

 We also 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 there's an upcoming 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