11/1/23            “Forensic Investigation as a Career” Isobel Colclough, a Forensic Investigator, told the audience of 75 that she gained a degree in Chemical Engineering (1989), then did research on Composting at Agricultural College before joining Greater Manchester Police  (GMP) as Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) in 1996.  Here she was able to attend a number of training courses to learn the basics of crime scene investigations and, lead some investigations.  In 2009, she joined UCLAN to lecture on the subject, including Archaeology and Anthropology,  While there, she gained an M.Sc. in Fire Investigations – when burnt, muscles contract, causing bodies to move erratically and possibly confuse subsequent investigations.  In 2018, while still at UCLAN, she also worked for GMP.  In 2018, she joined the UK Crime Training Service, with a 9 weeks residential training on photography, forensic techniques and taking finger prints.  She subsequently set herself up as an Independent Consultant.

In her work with GMP, she investigated a theft from the Whitworth Art Gallery, recovering the stolen paintings, and the death of a man, whose decomposed body had been undiscovered for 2 weeks.  In her 8 years at UCLAN, she went on a number of courses, including one in USA on real fire scenarios and another on what happens to bodies in plane crashes.  From 2018 – date, she had been training foreign Police Forces and their Militaries in the use of their own procedures and in evidence recovery, etc., in Afghanistan (dangerous), Iraq, Nigeria, The Gambia, Falkland Islands and Geneva, often involving fictitious crime scenes and watching locals trying to solve them.

You did not need a degree to be a CSI, just an enquiring mind, problem solving skills and lateral thinking ability, but you did need a STEM subject degree for Forensic Research.  The most important thing was to get into employment and then apply for internal promotions to progress your career.

8/2/23 Prof Tim Abrahams The Next Steps to Fusion Power”  Fusion is building up larger elements from 2 or more smaller ones (as opposed to Fission – breaking down large elements into smaller ones).  Fusion occurs in stars and supernovae and made all the 92 naturally-occurring elements.  Fusion involves only neutrons and protons (n & p) not electrons, which are used in chemical reactions, not nuclear ones.  In the Sun, fusion takes place with 2xH⁺ ions fusing to one He atom at a T of 15M^oC and a P of 250Batms.  On Earth, 250Batm is not possible so, to achieve fusion, we need 100M^oC.  +ve charges repel and as 2 H⁺ ions approach, they repel each other (Coulomb Barrier) and only when separated by >2fm (femtometres, 2x10^-15m)  (less than the diam. of a proton) does the Strong Nuclear Force take over and fuse them together into a new element.  Most likely fusion is a Deuterium atom (D, n.p) and a Tritium atom (T, n.n.p); D is common in normal water, 33g/m³; T occurs in CANDU moderator water, £33k/g and has half life of 12.3yrs.  There are no radioactive products from D=T→He reaction but T affects inside structure of reaction vessels, requiring regular replacement of radioactive parts.

Inertial Confinement:  US expts. using high powered lasers focussed on hollow glass spheres full of D & T produced 3.15MJ output from 2.05MJ input but this was the usable laser energy, only 1% of total energy input to laser.

Magnetic Confinement:  GB expts. on JET at Culham, produced 59MJ energy for 5s. – confined in a Tokamak, with superconducting magnets; energy produced was low grade heat (16MW output).  ITER, larger, international unit in S. France (nearing completion; 500MW?) to be followed by DEMO (2051?, 2000MW?).

GB Work (STEP):  US work showed that  a ‘spherical’ Tokamak (rather than a ‘flat donut’, like iTER) might be a better shape and early tests showed promise, i.e. GB is leading Fusion Research at present.

/2311/10“The Undiscovered Treasures of the Cumbrian Fells”  Professor Jane Barker, U. of Cumbria, told the audience of c.40 about radically new scientific technics for Hill Farming and how her vision had been implemented by her partner, Simon Bland, using his farming and engineering skills at Dalefoot, Cumbria.  Peat, though once the material of choice, had no nutrient value but, when harvested at the correct time, many other plants did, so that, when the right combination of species and quantities were composted together with humus-providing vegetation, a biologically balanced N, P, K growing medium could be produced. 

wool mixed with selected plant and all composted together to produce saleable products.  They had installed bagging equipment and were marketing them widely, including at The Chelsea Flower Show.  They worked with local Farmers and this was a real Cumbrian Success Story.  The replacement of peat by other composts was of major national and international importance to resist climate change.

10/1/24  “Forensic Investigation as a Career” Part 2”   Isobel Colclough, told the audience of  60+, that she gaining a degree in Chemical Engineering (1989) and did research on Composting at Agricultural College before joining Greater Manchester Police  (GMP) as Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) in 1996.  Here she was able to attend a number of internal training courses to learn the basics of crime scene investigations and lead some investigations.  Gun crime (hence, the name ‘Gunchester’) and crime gangs were prevalent then but were now replaced by drugs.  In 2009, she joined UCLAN to lecture on the subject, including Archaeology and Anthropology,  and gained an M.Sc. in Fire Investigations.  In 2018, while still at UCLAN, she also worked for GMP and was in charge of the Longsight Area.  In 2018, she joined the UK Crime Training Service, with was trained in photography, forensic techniques and taking finger prints.  She subsequently set herself up as an Independent Consultant, working mainly on teaching and auditing Crime Procedures in UK and in Afghanistan (dangerous), Iraq, Nigeria, The Gambia, Falkland Islands and Libya.  International Humanitarian  Law covered Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Aggression and were covered by ISO Procedures 17020 (2012) and 17025 (2017).

You did not need a degree to be a CSI, just have an enquiring mind, problem solving skills and lateral thinking ability, but did need a STEM subject degree for Forensic Research.  The most important thing was to get into employment and then apply for internal promotions to progress your career.

28/2/24  “A595 Grizebeck Road Improvement”  Will Storey (of Story Contracting) and Ian Roberts (of the Design Authority) told the audience of c.110 that in 2018, two proposals were tabled; one (A) was to widen the existing road from Chapels through the farmyard and build a new road (with cycle lanes) to join the A5092 W. of the present junction at Grizebeck, and the other (B) was a completely new road, E. of the farm through/over Pan Hill to join the other new road up to the new junction.  At review, B was chosen.  This would involve taking a major slice off the sandstone Pan Hill and use the spoil as infill for the new road to the junction plus an underpass for farm traffic, an over bridge for the old road, badger tunnel, bat and owl provision.  The speakers explained how the excavation and building of the new road would be done to maintain traffic access, connect with sewers, electricity and telephone services and provide pondage for rainwater runoff from the new road.  A great deal of planning had gone in to minimise disruption and meet ecological needs.  Final approval was expected soon for an Aug. ‘24 start and Mar. ‘26ish completion. 

Committee Review:  Very detailed talk, with attention to implementation and ecological aspects.  Thanks to Derek Fryer for organising talk and intro.

8/2/23              “Decarbonisation Opportunities in the West of the UK” Dr. John

Aldersey-Williams, of Progressive Energy Ltd. (PEL) told the audience of 48 that the goal of ‘Net Zero’ meant not adding to the CO₂ in the atmosphere and, if possible, reducing it.  This could be done by one / more of Insulating buildings, Fuel Switching or CCS (Carbon Capture & Storage), e.g. better insulation; coal/CH₄ →H₂/electrical/nuclear or storing CO₂ in used gas reservoirs.  H₂ may be made from:-

·        Natural Gas: CH₄ + 2H₂O → 4H₂ + CO₂ (CCS) → blue H₂;

·        Electrolysing Water (Wind/Nuclear) → H₂ → → green H₂; and

·        High Temp. New Design Nuclear Reactors:  H₂O → H₂ → pink H₂.

H₂ can be produced from biofuels (e.g. willow) or from the CO₂ in the atm. (expensive) but there was no ‘silver bullet’.  UK had many wind farms and a growing solar provision but the wind did not always blow and the sun did not always shine “Dunkelflaute” (German) so either a back-up supply or a buffer stock was needed.

PEL was working to design HyNet (Hydrogen Network) in S. Lancs with:-

·        CH₄ Supply from a gas field in Liverpool Bay;

·        Conversion to blue H₂ at Stanlow; 

·        CCS pipeline to depleted gas field in Liverpool Bay;

·        Buffer Storage in tanks above ground or in salt caverns at Nantwich; and

·        H₂ pipeline direct to users, car factories, cement mfrs., hospitals, offices and domestic dwellings, etc.

Barrow was ideally placed to contribute to HyNet as it had access to CH₄ gas (Rampside terminal), a conversion unit to blue H₂ was proposed locally, access to local users (Sellafield {pipeline}, BAE, Kimberley Clark, FGH, access to CCS storage (N. Morecambe reservoir was empty and had vast capacity), access to gas grid and could be also be joined to HyNet (in S. Lancs) by an offshore pipeline.  The N. Morecambe reservoir could be used for storage of ship-imported CO₂ and, if compressed, it would turn to liquid.

The present gas pipeline grid was being checked to see if it could take H₂ as the smaller molecule could percolate through pores in the metal pipes.  Some older St pipework might be OK and plastic was OK but newer HS steels were porous.

5/4/23“The Falklands Campaign, 1982”  Dr. Scott Lindgren, Naval HistorianIn 1981-2, a new Junta was in power in Argentina (A) and the country was in turmoil and an economic crisis.  In the UK, Defence (Budget) cuts resulted in the withdrawal of HMS

Endurance from the S. Atlantic.  When a country is in turmoil an ‘external threat’ is a typical way to rally the population and on 19/3/82, A invaded S. Georgia and on 2/4/82, The Falkland Islands (Malvinas).  The UK learnt of this via short wave radio.  In London, the MoD advised that mounting a Task Force to retake the Islands was ‘just about feasible’ and a Naval flotilla, exercising in the Mediterranean was sent south, later joined by the carriers Hermes and Invincible, the LPD Fearless and submarines.  On 24/4, sub. ARA Santa Fe was depth-charged, disabled and S. Georgia recaptured (25/4).  Scott then considered the actions on a day-by-day basis, covering UK Navy, UK and An aircraft and Special Forces, including losses and damage sustained.  Special attention was paid to Ships Taken Up From Trade (STUFT).  The A Navy was in 3 groups, a carrier group to the N, other ships to the W. and the Belgrano group to the S (all Exocet armed) and, effectively forming a ‘pincer group’; so HMS Conqueror sank the Belgrano (323 killed); couldn’t find the carrier; result was all A ships returning to port.  The Harrier and Sidewinder were key weapons.  Troops landed on 20/21 May and Atlantic Conveyor sunk on 25/5.  UK disorganisation led to loss of Sir Galahad and many Welsh Guards, 8/6.

13/9/23“New Latest Views of our Universe with The James Webb Space Telescope”Dr Robin Catchpole,   Covered design of JWST and explaining how complex it had been to get into space and deploy it at the L2 point where it would orbit the sun.  He then compared it with HST and showed duplicate images of the same objects to demonstrate the extra sharpness, clarity and detail from JWST's larger mirror and use of IR wavelengths.  Covered Gravity Lensing and showed how the multiple images could give data on their invisible sources and how JWST's spectrometer facilities could identify gases in the atmospheres of exoplanets and might be able to identify exoplanets in habitable zones and possibly even detecting the signatures of emissions from complex life forms?  There were images of the outer planets and some of their rarely seen ring systems.

7/2/24  “Living On The Moon, Living Off The Moon”   Dr. Joshua Resera, of Imperial College, London, told the audience of 120+ that a ‘resource’ was a natural concentration of a useful material and a ‘reserve’ was a resource that could be exploited economically.  It was prohibitively costly to carry everything up from Earth but different types of asteroids had limited ranges of materials and the Moon, formed by a collision with Earth, had all Earth’s elements.  Mars was similarly endowed with volcanic rocks, but unlike the Moon, also had sedimentary rocks. 

The Moon rotated once in 27 Earth days so each ‘lunar day and night’ was 13½ days long.  Temperatures varied from +127 to -173^oC, which was too cold for batteries, so energy at night would have to be from nuclear decay heat.  As there was no water on the Moon (or Mars), recovery of minerals would have to be via dry processes, e.g. comminution, sieving, vibration and magnetic or electrostatic separation.  Gravity-driven processes might also be possible.  Imperial College was undertaking research into dry processing in the more arid parts of Australia. 

The lunar highlands were the light parts of the Moon and the Mare the dark areas.  The regolith was very fine grained grit, sized from 0-1mm, with an average of 72μm; this proved to be a real problem for the 1970’s astronauts as the particles ‘got everywhere’ and threatened the rubber seals between their (removable) helmets and spacesuits.  Coarse fibre filtration followed by hepafiltration would be needed.  It was cohesive, electrostatically charged and, when disturbed, could spread a long way over the lunar surface.  The regolith consisted of agglutinates, breccias, pyroclastic glass beads and rock fragments, resulting from incessant bombardment.  The low gravity (1/6^th Earth’s) would be a problem, e.g. an astronaut digging in the regolith could exert only 1/6^th of his mass on the spade!  However, manufacture in low gravity could give products which could not be made on Earth, such as single crystals.

Several nations had landed probes on the Moon and there was an International Treaty prohibiting colonisation of the Moon, etc. but it was ambiguous on Space Resource Utilisation (SRU) and this could lead to friction in the future.