Sheffield Hallam University Christmas Lecture

14 December 1998

The IEE Sheffield Centre again co-sponsored the Christmas Lecture at Sheffield Hallam University. This year's topic was the planned Beagle 2 mission to search for life on Mars, and was given by Professor C T Pillinger, Head of Planetary Sciences at the Open University, who is leading the consortium established to run the mission.

Professor Pillinger gave a fascinating insight into the planned mission, which is to answer questions raised by the discovery of apparent traces of primitive life on a meteorite known to have originated on Mars. Those interested in following the progress of the mission can do so on http://psri.open.ac.uk/News/ or http://beagle2.open.ac.uk/ We all look forward - as one member of the audience put it - to hearing in the news that... "The Beagle has landed"!

All the younger visitors to the lecture received a present with a scientific theme from Father Christmas - who took time off from his busy schedule to visit Sheffield - and why not!

Thanks to our Assistant Treasurer Tom Holmes, who once again brought his friends from the Oughtibride Brass Band who entertained us with seasonal music before the lecture, whilst we all munched on mince pies!