THE past, present and future of science and technology is featuring in the new series of talks organised by a combination of nine South Cumbrian technical, management and engineering groups.

It started last Wednesday with the return visit to Barrow by Cambridge research astronomer Dr Robin Catchpole with the topic 100,000 Million Stars and Silence – Why Are We Alone?

He showed how human civilization had slowly developed to the stage where it is capable of looking for and communicating with other lifeforms – if they are out there.

Prof Catchpole looked at the mathematical possibilities for other planets supporting life and suggested that our 50-year history as an advanced technological civilization would need to survive a great deal longer to have a realistic hope of finding life beyond our solar system.

Tonight, Thursday, September 22, Brian Smith will speak about the Furness Shipbuilding Company's yard at Haverton Hill on Teeside.

It started life as an emergency yard to cope with ship repairs needed during the First World War.

By the 1960s it was producing supertankers and bulk carriers but closed in the 1970s.

All the talks are free, start at 7.30pm and are held at the Forum on Duke Street, Barrow.

On September 28 Hannah Joslin will describe work on the Swansea Tidal Lagoon Power Project to create the world's first tidal lagoon.

The £1.3bn project with due to start construction late next year.

Naval historian Professor Eric Grove will be the guest speaker on October 12 to look at the crisis to British shipping caused by German U-boat attacks in 1917.

On October 20 Nigel Macknight will describe the Quicksilver project to challenge the world water speed record – currently held at 317.6mph.

Tim Shuttleworth has an earlier 7pm start for his talk on leadership and management on October 26.

Radio telescopes, how they work and the results they have achieved, will be discussed by William McGenn and Malcolm Gray from Manchester University at the usual 7.30pm on November 9.

The restoration of a historic railway route which once linked Scotland and Cumbria will be in the spotlight for the final talk in the engineering and science series this year.

On November 23 during a talk by Andy Munro, lead project engineer with Siemens Rail, will talk about work on the Waverley Line.

This ran south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle and was built by the North British Railway.

It reached Carlisle in 1862 and was named after a series of novels by Sir Walter Scott.

The line closed in 1969 as a result of the Beeching Report – which also saw the closure of the branch line from Ulverston to Lakeside.

Part of the Waverley Line, from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, reopened in September last year.