U3A Explores Science at the Ri

£20 per ticket - maximum 15 tickets per order

THIS EVENT IS FOR U3A MEMBERS ONLY

1.45pm Introduction by Pam Jones, (Chair of The Third Age Trust), who will act as chair for the afternoon followed by:

Jon Copley - Deeper than the Titanic, hotter than molten lead: exploring hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor.
Our ‘blue planet’ is not just an ocean planet: it is a deep ocean planet, relative to our human scale. Sixty percent of our world lies beneath water more than one kilometre deep, beyond the reach of the Sun's rays. People developed the technology to withstand the crushing pressures of the abyss less than a century ago, and since then our journeys have revealed its landscapes and inhabitants to be just as rich and varied as those on land. Among its wonders are hydrothermal vents, where fluids hot enough to melt lead meet cold deep-ocean water to build mineral spires several storeys high in a matter of months, and where lush colonies of deep-sea animals thrive thanks to geologically-fuelled microbes among them.

2.20pm Question and answer session (15 minutes).

2.35pm Courtenay Norbury – Developmental language disorders: prevalence and impact
Language is a uniquely human accomplishment that most children acquire effortlessly. Some children, however, struggle to learn their native language for no obvious reason. Such children raise interesting questions about how language is situated in the developing brain and how it relates to other developmental skills such as non-verbal reasoning, social interaction and academic learning. Data from the Surrey Communication and Language in Education Study (SCALES) provides crucial data on how many children in the UK start school with language disorder, how language disorder impacts behaviour and academic attainment, and how differences in social advantage and cognitive ability may or may not influence language learning over time.

3.10pm Question and answer session (15 minutes).
3.25pm Tea and coffee (30 minutes)

3.55pm Jill Stuart – Who owns outer space?
As governments and corporations continue to venture beyond our own planet, how do we decide who owns space? Jill Stuart draws on her extensive research into outer space politics, explaining our existing laws, where they’ve come from and how politics on Earth affects what happens in the cosmos.

4.30pm Question and answer session (15 minutes).

4.45pm Close of meeting