Spring 2012
Science cafes will meet at 7:00pm on Tuesday @ Radina's Coffeehouse and Roastery
PLEASE NOTE: The May 8 Science Cafe is at a different location. Meet us at Varsity Donuts in Aggieville!
May 8
"The Venus Transit"
Dr. Chris Sorensen, KSU Physics Department
On June 5, 2012, the transit of Venus between the sun and the earth will be visible in North America. For us in Manhattan this will begin at 5:04 pm and run through sunset This is a rare event. Chris will tell us more about this historic events and the activities that are being planned for viewing it here in Manhattan.
January 24
"Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Universe"
Dr. Bharat Ratra, KSU Physics Department
Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing the cosmological expansion to accelerate. (The observational discovery of the accelerating cosmological expansion was recently honored by the award of a Nobel Prize.) I will describe the data which persuade cosmologists that (as yet undetected) dark energy and dark matter are by far the main components of the universe.
February 21
"Robotic and Manned Missions to Mars"
Dr. Bill Kuhn, KSU Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Recently NASA/JPL launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) as a follow-on to the highly successful Spirit and Opportunity rover missions. This talk will review the previous rover-missions and their findings, as well as introduce MSL. Some related work at K-State, including radio hardware development for future robotic missions to our sister planet will also be presented. Come learn how these robotic missions send data and high-resolution photos back to earth from over 50 million km away !
March 27
"Kitchen DNA"
Dr. Sue Brown, KSU Divison of Biology
DNA is found in every cell of every plant and animal. Scientists study DNA, but what is it? Did you know we can isolate DNA with chemicals found right on our kitchen shelves?
April 17
"Humans at the End of the Ice Age: Coping with Climate Change, Circa 10,000 BC"
Dr. Ted Goebel, Texas A&M Anthropology
Sigma Xi Distinguished National Speaker
Ted Goebel is an archaeologist who studies the Ice Age dispersal of modern humans to the Americas. His field work has been primarily in Siberia, Alaska, and the intermountain west of the United States, and he has investigated archaeological sites spanning from more than 50,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago.
