SCIENCE ON TAP
Science on Tap is a science lecture series where you can sit back, enjoy a pint, and laugh while you learn. Listen to experts talk about the science in your neighborhood and around the world. You don’t have to be a science geek to have fun—all you need is a thirst for knowledge!
February 12th at 7pm
FRIENDSHIP: THE EVOLUTION, BIOLOGY, AND EXTRAORDINARY POWER OF LIFE’S FUNDAMENTAL BOND
The phenomenon of friendship is universal and elemental. Friends, after all, are the family we choose. But what makes these bonds not just pleasant but essential, and how do they affect our bodies and our minds?
At this Science on Tap science journalist Lydia Denworth talks about her new book where she takes us to the front lines of the science of friendship in search of its biological, psychological, and evolutionary foundations. Finding it to be as old as life on the African savannas, she also discovers that friendship is reflected in our brain waves, detectable in our genomes, and capable of strengthening our cardiovascular and immune systems. Its opposite, loneliness, can kill. As a result, social connection is finally being recognized as critical to our physical and emotional well-being. Learn about field biology and cutting-edge neuroscience that shows how our bodies and minds are designed to make friends, the process by which social bonds develop, and how a drive for friendship underpins human (and nonhuman) society. Join us for a refreshingly optimistic vision of the evolution of human nature just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Lydia Denworth is a Brooklyn-based science journalist whose work is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. A contributing writer for Scientific American and Psychology Today, she has also written for the Atlantic and the New York Times.
Vintage Books will be onsite for book sales and signing.
ADVANCE SALES*
General Admission: $13
Student / Senior (65+): $7
VIP**(guaranteed seating): $20
Supporter**: $30
Add a book to any advance ticket: $24
DAY OF SHOW
General Admission: $15
Student / Senior (65+): $10
Book purchased onsite: $29.50
*A note on advance ticket sales: There is an additional fee for purchase, but this ticket guarantees a seat at the event start time of 7:00pm. In the event of a sold-out show, tickets not redeemed by 7:10pm may be released. Advance ticket sales end at 12:00am the night before the show.
**A note on ticket levels: VIP tickets guarantee front center seating that stays available through entire show — meaning you can arrive late and your seat will be waiting for you. Supporter tickets get VIP benefits (guaranteed seating) plus a voluntary upcharge to help support the true cost of producing events.
March 11th at 7pm
COSMIC REVOLUTION: WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE BIG BANG?
Until about a hundred years ago scientists thought that the Milky Way galaxy was the entirety of the Universe and didn’t know that there were any galaxies out there beyond our own. When we finally discovered that other galaxies did exist, it revealed a Universe that was expanding, getting less dense, and was cooling. By working backwards, they hypothesized that the Universe was denser and hotter in the past. If you make a naive extrapolation, you can go all the way back to a singularity that they called the Big Bang where all the matter and energy collects into a single point. But was that really the beginning of the Universe?
In the 1980s new theory came along that attempted challenge the idea that the singularity was the start of everything, and we’ve spent the last 30 years testing it. At last, the verdict is in, and we now know what came before the Big Bang. At this Science on Tap, hear theoretical physicist and author Ethan Siegel, PhD, talk about how the greatest cosmic revolution just got even greater.
Ethan Siegel was born in New York, majored in three different things as an undergrad, and got his Ph.D. in theoretical physics. After postdoctoral research focusing on dark matter and cosmic structure formation, he became a physics professor and a professional science communicator. The communication was more fun, so now he writes and speaks full-time, including for Forbes, and NASA. His blog, Starts With A Bang, was voted the #1 science blog on the internet by the Institute of Physics, and, separately, by Real Clear Science. He has written Beyond the Galaxy and Treknology.
ADVANCE SALES
General Admission: $13
Student / Senior (65+): $7
VIP**(guaranteed seating): $20
Supporter**: $30
DAY OF SHOW
General Admission: $15
Student / Senior (65+): $10
*A note on advance ticket sales: There is an additional fee for purchase, but this ticket guarantees a seat at the event start time of 7:00pm. In the event of a sold-out show, tickets not redeemed by 7:10pm may be released. Advance ticket sales end at 12:00am the night before the show.
**A note on ticket levels: VIP tickets guarantee front center seating that stays available through entire show — meaning you can arrive late and your seat will be waiting for you. Supporter tickets get VIP benefits (guaranteed seating) plus a voluntary upcharge to help support the true cost of producing events.
April 15th at 7pm
ALIEN OCEANS: THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE DEPTHS OF SPACE
Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions have revealed that some of the most habitable real estate may actually lie farther away. Beneath the frozen crusts of several of the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn lurk vast oceans that may have been in existence for as long as Earth, and together may contain more than fifty times its total volume of liquid water. Could there be organisms living in their depths? Kevin Peter Hand’s book Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space reveals the science behind the thrilling quest to find out.
Kevin Peter Hand is one of today’s leading NASA scientists, and his pioneering research has taken him on expeditions around the world. At this Science on Tap, he will bring together insights from planetary science, biology, and the adventures of scientists like himself to explain how we know that oceans exist within moons of the outer solar system, like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus. He’ll discuss how the exploration of Earth’s ocean is informing our understanding of the potential habitability of these icy moons, and draws lessons from what we have learned about the origins of life on our own planet to consider how life could arise on these distant worlds.
ADVANCE SALES*
General Admission: $13
Student / Senior (65+): $7
VIP**(guaranteed seating): $20
Supporter**: $30
Add a book to any advance ticket: $26
DAY OF SHOW
General Admission: $15
Student / Senior (65+): $10
Book purchased onsite: $30.00
*A note on advance ticket sales: There is an additional fee for purchase, but this ticket guarantees a seat at the event start time of 7:00pm. In the event of a sold-out show, tickets not redeemed by 7:10pm may be released. Advance ticket sales end at 12:00am the night before the show.
**A note on ticket levels: VIP tickets guarantee front center seating that stays available through entire show — meaning you can arrive late and your seat will be waiting for you. Supporter tickets get VIP benefits (guaranteed seating) plus a voluntary upcharge to help support the true cost of producing events.
Showtimes
| Wed, 2/12/20 |  7:00 PM
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| Wed, 3/11/20 | 7:00 PM
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| Wed, 4/15/20 | 7:00 PM
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