21st October 2020 - Richard Cottrell

Sir Jack Drummond - Scientist, Icon or Spy?

Sir Jack Drummond (1891 – 1952) was a world famous nutritionist who is credited with devising the system of rationing used in World War Two.

His murder in 1952 has never been adequately explained.

A fresh look at the evidence shows that:

• He was using a false surname throughout his adult life
• The rationing system was devised by the Ministry of Supply well before he took any part in the Ministry of Food, and
• The circumstances of his death strongly suggest he was trying to defect to Russia

18th November 2020 - Jim White

Subject:

[Details to follow]

16th December 2020 - Michael Wardle

The Magic of Mathematics …
          … and The Mathematics of Magic (Part 1)

Michael Wardle, a founder member of the Purbeck U3A, holder of the Silver Star of the Magic Circle and former Mathematics Teacher and author of several mathematics books, will present a light hearted two part talk.

In the first part he will outline a number of the most fascinating results in Mathematics and in the second part he will demonstrate a number of magical items based on simple Mathematical ideas.

19th August 2020 - Geoff Kirby

Covid-19: The Statistics

Geoff Kirby is obsessed by data. A few years ago he analysed the entire daily weather records for Weymouth from 1927 to 2015 just for fun. This comprised over 32,000 daily records.

In 2020 his obsession has turned to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has been collecting daily death rate data from thirteen countries and has used these data to develop a simple mathematical model for the development of the pandemic. His model gives insights into the way that the pandemic has developed and been bought under control. This model has also been applied to the Ebola epidemic of 2014/5.

16th September 2020 - John Hale & Members

Tech Forum & Discussion

A lively Forum of Speakers and Guests discussing matters of Technical or Scientific interest supplied by YOU - the Members of the Science & Technology Group.

Please submit your Tech discussion points well in advance to John Hale at u3a@greenacre.info so that an appropriate panel of Speakers can be formed.