November 30, 2015

Wednesday, December 2, 8PM, Secret Science Club presents Biologist & Animal Behavior Specialist Simon Garnier at the Bell House, FREE!

What is intelligence? Good question . . . Safely encased in our human skulls, our 85 billion neurons gather information, form thoughts, and dictate our actions. But is that the only kind of smarts? Biologist Simon Garnier studies animals that use a more external operating system and exhibit highly coordinated group behavior—or collective intelligence. Think army ants, schools of fish, flocks of birds, the Borg (gulp).

Director of the Swarm Lab and professor of biology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Simon Garnier researches ant-mimicking robot swarms, bridge-building army ants, and socially networked slime molds to learn how intelligent collective behaviors and decision-making emerge in groups of social animals. He also considers the question of self-organization in nature—in everything from cells to human crowds. Simon Garnier’s work has been widely covered in the media, and he has been a featured scientist on Science Friday, the Guardian technology video series, National Geographic, Scientific American, and Mashable.

Before & After
--Try our hive-minded cocktail of the night, the Perfect Swarm
--Wiggle to grooves that wriggle
--Stick around for the scintillating Q&A

This crowd-sourced edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, December 2, 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Subway: F or G to 4th Ave; R to 9th Street.

Doors open at 7:30 pm. Please bring ID: 21+

No cover. Just bring your smart self!

November 15, 2015

Smashing! Monday, November 23, 8PM, Secret Science Club presents Particle Physicist Kyle Cranmer @ the Bell House, FREE!

Particle physicist Kyle Cranmer beams into the Bell House!

Take a spin through the science at the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator with physicist Kyle Cranmer—from the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson (one of the fundamental particles that make up the Universe) to the ongoing search for dark matter. After a two-year break, the atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider is now back for Season 2—running at nearly double its previous energy, hurling 600 million protons together every second, and reaping juicy, cosmos-hacking data.

Just back from LHC headquarters in Geneva, Kyle Cranmer asks:
--What is the process that LHC researchers use to search for new particles and new physics?
--What exactly is the Higgs boson? How is it challenging our understanding of the Universe and fundamental laws of nature?
--What about dark matter—the invisible stuff calculated to make up 27 percent of the Universe?
--What are physicists looking for next? What mysteries remain?

Kyle Cranmer is a professor at NYU's Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and NYU's Center for Data Science. He is part of the team at the Large Hadron Collider that first detected the Higgs boson—the subatomic particle thought to be responsible for the existence of mass in the Universe. He is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the National Science Foundation Career Award. His research was featured in the award-winning documentary Particle Fever, and he has been a featured scientist on StarTalk Live with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Before & After
--Groove to high-energy tunes
--Stick around for the quantum Q&A
--Try our quarky cocktail of the night, the Atom Smasher

This subatomic edition of the Secret Science Club meets Monday, November 23 @ The Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd aves) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Subway: F or G to 4th Ave, R to 9th St.

Doors open at 7:30 pm. Please bring ID: 21+. No cover. Just bring your smart self!