Science 2

The group met via Zoom on Friday 17th July and on Friday 31st July. The first meeting was rather disappointing as, despite a practice sessio, the screen sharing went awry. That could be the fault of the operator (me) or a technical hitch…

Despite that Christine Vincent managed to tell us something about Rachel Carson who spent four years gathering research and writing a book. She named it Silent Spring referring to birds dying due to pesticides and the spring being silent without their song. The book was published in 1962. The book became very popular and brought the environmental issues of pesticides to the general public. Rachel didn’t call for a ban on all pesticides. She advocated more research into the dangers of some pesticides and a lower volume of spraying. In 1973, DDT was banned in the United States. It is still used more sparingly in some countries to kill mosquitoes.

Alan Ratcliffe then spoke about hydrogen which is the lightest element in the periodic table. Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical substance in the universe, constituting roughly 75% of all normal matter.

On the 31st Bob Gow wowed us with the history and technology behind the Bestwood Winding House, a topic that deserves to be explored more and which will feature as a future article.

To finish, Sue Tedstone shared some facts about the 3 species: African bush elephant, African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. Elephants eat all types of vegetation, from grass and fruit to leaves and bark — about 165 to 330 pounds (75 to 150 kilograms) each day, which is about 4 to 6 percent of their body weight. They spend an average of 16 hours per day eating!

Thanks to all contributors.

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