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21st April 2021 -
Science, Theft and Treachery
The stories of the Bruneval Raid to capture Hitler's radar, and of the parallel story of spies and agents on the Russian Front.
During the 20th century, scientific advances applied to military use could win or lose wars, and so were the subject both of espionage and of direct assault. Dr Phil Judkins scrutinises two classic examples, one of assault and theft, one of treachery.
During the Second World War, Britain at first thought that it alone had the secret of radar, until increasing evidence showed that Germany had equipment equally as advanced – if not better! The Bruneval Raid, subject of a recent book by local author Damien Lewis, was mounted to steal a German radar – but how did reality match the bold plan?
On the Eastern Front, Russia and Germany were locked in a titanic struggle whose
scale dwarfs conflict in Western Europe – but what is the almost unknown story of
German spying on Russia, and of the German spy codenamed ‘Klatt’, Germany’s primary
source of information on Russia. Why was he of such interest to the British at Bletchley
Park? Was Klatt in fact a Russian double agent? A true story to match the fiction
of John le Carré, with a stomach-
17th March 2021 -
Orthopaedic Implant Design
Over three million joint replacement operations are performed in the United Kingdom
each year using state-
In this meeting Lindsay Dixon will describe the design challenges of joint replacements and will explain the mechanical engineering, biological science, and materials technology that combine to bring pain relief and better quality of life to so many people.
Dr Lindsay Dixon is a Senior Technical Specialist at the British Standards Institution and is an expert in the design of medical implants. She works in the regulatory approval of orthopaedic and dental devices.
19th May 2021 -
Ecological Restoration
In the early decades of the growth of nature conservation NGOs understandably focussed on acquiring important reserves before they were lost to agricultural improvement or development. As time went by, the importance of management made itself apparent, some of which was seriously in arrears.
Will Bond and his team became experts in the sphere of what might be termed ‘makeovers’
of nature reserves to bring them back up to scratch, using big construction, quarrying
and agricultural equipment to deliver large scale results within constrained timescales
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The talk will use examples to illustrate some of the conflicts and compromises necessary to preserve the best of our wildlife sites.
Will Bond is an ecological contractor based at Wareham in Dorset. His company Alaska Ecological Contracting is a known innovator and leader of best practise in the use of modern equipment applied to ecological management and restoration. He is a previous recipient of the Society for Ecological Restoration’s John Rieger Award, and the Chartered Institute of Ecological and Environmental Management’s Outstanding Professional Award. He denies being professional, just enthusiastic!
17th February 2021 -
Immunology & Immunity
– the Good, the Bad and the Unknown
Our immune systems are essential for defence against infection, but not always effective
(malaria, tuberculosis, HIV for example). These systems are largely ineffective against
cancer, but can cause a large variety of different diseases -
Currently, in times of the Coronavirus (Covid-
In his talk Gordon will discuss all these different aspects of immunity – what we do and do not know about them. He will discuss his own research, largely involving how immune responses in the intestine are started and regulated.
