2017 sees our science group, which began over 8 years ago, still thriving.

In our four meetings so far this year we have each picked out a favourite scientist to tell the rest of the group about. Thus we have made the acquaintances of Michael Faraday, Ada Lovelace, Joseph Priestley, Blaise Pascal and Cecil Powell.

In February we each chose a planet or a moon and compared their atmospheres. Venus’s sulphuric acid clouds were judged the least hospitable. Jupiter’s swirling bands the most turbulent and Titan’s methane rain and lakes the most intriguing.

This month we talked about rocks, and each member brought samples of pieces of the Earth’s crust which they had picked up on holiday in various parts of the world. We learned about obsidian from the Great Rift Valley, conglomerate from the Australian outback, fluorspar from Derbyshire and limestone and millstone grit from the Pennines.

Next month we propose to look at telescopes, from Galileo’s and Newton’s original instruments to some of today’s most advanced radio and space telescopes.

Jill Taylor