6th year of Science on Tap

Thanks to the continued support of UNM, Explora and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

 

 A time to eat, drink & talk about science!

on Central

Join us Thursday, November 2nd at 5:30

Dr TerBeek has had to postpone his talk until sometime next Spring.

Our own Sarah Pratt from Explora is putting together some Chemistry Demos - see you in a few hours!

Dark Matter: Origins, Evidence and Why you Should Care

Russell TerBeek, Ph.D.

Physicist

Raytheon Albuquerque

As we look out into the night sky, it is tempting to think that the universe as we see it, as vast and magnificent as it is, could not possibly be any stranger.  But, back in the 1970s, physicists and astronomers began to suspect that all we could see couldn’t possibly be all there was.  In order to explain the behavior of galaxies, and even clusters of galaxies, some kind of stuff that clumped together and yet didn’t emit light – “dark matter” – needed to be thrown into the picture.  In fact, in order to fit the observational data, about four-fifths of all the matter in the universe would need to be “dark.”  For tonight’s talk, I’ll discuss the history of dark matter in astronomy, the ongoing search to find it on both astronomical and microscopic scales, some of the theories of what could make up this mysterious form of matter, and the experimental evidence so far.

6th year of Science on Tap

Thanks to the continued support of UNM, Explora and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

 

 A time to eat, drink & talk about science!

on Central

Join us Thursday, October 5th at 5:30

Caution: It may be a little shocking!

David Gibson

Museum Educator

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Our program will be on Electricity and the body: inside and out. Explore a few of the ways electricity affects the human body. Discover the "Skin Effect", Static, and controlling another person with your body's electricity.

David Gibson is the Museum Educator at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and history. He works to make science fun, engaging and memorable for all ages

6th year of Science on Tap

Thanks to the continued support of UNM, Explora and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

 

 A time to eat, drink & talk about science!

on Central

Join us Thursday, September 7 at 5:30

Raman spectroscopy: A 90-year story of the intersection of science and technology

 

 

Andrew P. Shreve

University of New Mexico

Professor

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Director

Center for Biomedical Engineering

 

A surgeon needs to determine the boundary between normal and diseased tissue. An art restorer needs to figure out what kinds of coatings were applied to an 18th century masterpiece over the last few centuries. A security officer needs to figure out if a powder contains explosives. A Food and Drug Administration inspector needs to determine if every tablet in a blister pack of imported pharmaceuticals was correctly manufactured. What do these situations have in common? They are all currently addressed using Raman spectroscopy. Early 2018 will mark the 90-year anniversary of the discovery of the Raman effect. The effect, named after its co-discoverer C.V. Raman, occurs when light passes through a transparent material and a very tiny fraction of the light changes color. The scientific community quickly recognized this result as a profound discovery, and Raman received a Nobel Prize only two years later. However, it’s taken 90 years of research and development for the technological impact of the discovery to begin to be fully realized. I will briefly discuss the Raman effect and Raman spectroscopy, and then describe the decades long path of discovery and technology development that has enabled the current widespread use of this method. The trajectory of Raman spectroscopy from its origin in fundamental science to applications in diverse fields spanning from medicine to art is a compelling story that illustrates how interactions between different areas of science and engineering can lead to technologies with broad societal impact.

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew P. Shreve is Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at UNM. His research interests include development of biosensors, optical instrumentation, and spectroscopy or modeling of energy and charge transfer in biological, nanomaterial and chemical systems. Amongst other topics, he has co-authored many scientific papers in the area of Raman spectroscopy, including experimental and theoretical studies of crystalline materials, carbon nanotubes, and proteins.

Our 5th year of Science on Tap continues!

Thanks to the continued support of UNM, Explora and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

 

 A time to eat, drink & talk about science!

on Central is our new home 

Join us Thursday, April 6 at 5:30!

Infectious Diseases:

where's the line between public health and security?

 

Lisa Astuto-Gribble, PhD, MPH

Sandia National Laboratories

Bioscience research is changing rapidly. For example, improvements in sequencing have exceeded Moore's Law. In parallel with the scientific advances, there has been a growing concern about the threat of bioterrorism. A selective review of the changes in the science and in bioterrorism incidents will provide a background for considering the various controls to address bioterrorism that are being implemented in the US and internationally. Should the materials be controlled? Should the equipment be controlled? Should there be controls on the expertise that could contribute to biological weapons? There is not a consensus approach to assessing the risks or the appropriate measures to address those risks, or how to evaluate tradeoffs of possible impacts to science and public health.

Jennifer Gaudioso leads the International Biological and Chemical Threat Reduction (IBCTR) program at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, USA.  This program enhances United States and international security by seeking innovative solutions for countering biological and chemical threats globally.  Specifically, IBCTR develops and applies systems-based approaches to reduce the risk of intentional or accidental release of dangerous biological and chemical agents globally. The program has organized many international conferences, trainings, and workshops to build local capacity to address these issues.  In the last five years, Jennifer and her team have visited facilities in more than 40 countries specifically to consult on biosecurity and chemical security issues. IBCTR is an OIE Collaborating Centre for Laboratory Biorisk Management. Jennifer has served on the National Academies' Committee on Education on Dual Use Issues in the Life Sciences and their Committee on “Anticipating Biosecurity Challenges of the Global Expansion of High Containment Biological Laboratories”. She has served as a member of three international teams to develop biosafety and biorisk management international standards. She has been named a principal-external collaborator with the Japanese National Institute for Infectious Disease. Jennifer is author of numerous journal articles, and book chapters, and has presented her research at national and international meetings. Gaudioso co-edited the book Laboratory Biorisk Management: Biosafety and Biosecurity. She also co-authored the Laboratory Biosecurity Handbook.  Jennifer has served on SNL’s Institutional Biosafety Committee, is an active member of the American Biological Safety Association, and is on the board of the Elizabeth R Griffin Research Foundation. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at Cornell University.

Our 5th year of Science on Tap continues!

Thanks to the continued support of UNM, Explora and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

 

 A time to eat, drink & talk about science!

on Central is our new home 

Join us Thursday, March 2 at 5:30!

How Safe is Safe?

A Water Engineer's Perspective on Water and Public Risk

 

Bruce M Thomson, Ph.D., P.E.

Professor Emeritus and Research Professor
Department of Civil Engineering

University of New Mexico

 

Life is filled with all sorts of risks, some are voluntary like rock climbing and smoking, while others are involuntary like breathing the air and being struck by lightning.  The first canon in the professional engineers’ code of ethics states that engineers “shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public” but it gives no guidance on what level of safety is expected.  Achieving zero risk for most activities is virtually impossible, so what are acceptable levels of risk and who makes those decisions?  Water poses both voluntary and involuntary risks to humans.  Two of the most recognized involuntary risks are health risks from contaminants in drinking water and threats to life and property from flooding.  This talk will discuss what level of risk has been determined to be acceptable for each situation, how this determination was made, and consider some of the factors that may influence whether the goal is being met and at what cost.

Then, after we’ve all consumed an adult beverage or two, we’ll head home and test the transportation risks on the Albuquerque road system.

 

Bruce Thomson is Professor Emeritus and Research Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of New Mexico.  He served as Director of UNM’s Water Resources Program from 2005 to 2013.  He has recently been re-elected to a 6 year term and is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority (AMAFCA).  He has been at UNM since the late Pleistocene epoch and is among the last practicing engineers in the state who still knows how to use a slide rule.