Science Under the Dome

Join us for our Science Under the Dome monthly live talk series. Talks in this series are presented by graduate student and postdoc researchers at CU Boulder.

(Normally, these events are a part of our regular talks and normal ticket prices apply. Groupons can be used. CU Boulder students are admitted FREE with valid BuffOne card. Tickets must be picked up in person and only one ticket per student.)

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Science of Sci-Fi series

From warp drives to artificial intelligence to living on Mars, this series is to explore a variety of scientific ideas that surface in science fiction books, movies, and video games. Where have popular sci-fi movies portrayed science correctly, and where has Hollywood gone off the deep end? What technologies were once ‘sci-fi’ but are now rapidly becoming a reality?

Image shows artistic impression of human eyes focused on the irises

UPCOMING TALK

To See or Not To See: Exploring the Machine and Alien Perspective - January 27 @ 7pm

“Can I see you? Can it see me?” These are the questions continuously asked when diving into vision exploration. In science fiction, perspective goes beyond humans, as do the questions. By breaking down visual and vision design in The Terminator, Predator, and The Thing we will explore the alien and machine perspective and ask questions of science, bias, and design. How do we think they see? What does it mean that we think they see in this way? What does it mean that this is how we have made them see?

Sara is originally from Los Angeles, California. She completed her undergrad at The College of Wooster where she double majored in Biology and English. There she focused on invertebrate visual ecology. Sara loves to read and write during her free time, she specialized in creative writing during her undergrad and has spent the last two years as an AmeriCorps Academic Coach in Chicago writing up interdisciplinary lesson plans for her high schoolers. She is now at CU Boulder studying barn swallows as part of The Safran Lab in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department.

Photo of the Space Shuttle docked with the International Space Station view of Earth is in the lower right

PREVIOUS TALK

Where Only a Few Have Gone Before: How Humans Live and Work in Space - November 11 @ 7pm

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to live in space, or how your favorite science fiction movie compares to the real thing? Join us for a journey through film and history as we discuss the way artists and filmmakers have inspired real-life engineers and influenced the way our astronauts live and work in space. We’ll discuss the early days of science fiction, the original Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and more recent films such as the Martian. We’ll also be learning what it takes to keep humans alive and well in orbit around Earth, and how we can study the effects of spaceflight in places here on the ground.

Annika Rollock is a PhD student in Bioastronautics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Originally from New Jersey, Annika completed her BS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from MIT in 2018, where she also rowed competitively at the Division I level and minored in creative writing. Her PhD research is on the design of future deep space habitats, through which she works with NASA on the HOME (Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration) project. She loves all thing science fiction and fantasy, and in her free time she loves to read, write, and get outdoors.

Science and Society series

Science and technology don’t exist in a vacuum - there are countless ways that research and innovation play a significant role in society at large. What are some of the ways in which they overlap? This series explores the intersection of science and society, addressing topics such as light pollution, GMOs, and mining asteroids, and the talks invite the audience to consider ways in which they have been impacted by this intersection.

Silhoutte Medieval Islamic architecture building with blue tiles in the background

PREVIOUS TALK

Penrose Tilings, Quasicrystals, and Islamic Architecture - October 21 at 7pm

What do the floor of the Oxford mathematics department and Medieval Islamic architecture have in common? They both feature a particular kind of mathematical pattern called aperiodic tilings. In the 1960s and 1970s, mathematicians found different sets of shapes that could be put on a flat surface in such a way that the pattern never exactly repeats, so matter how many tiles you use. Roger Penrose created one of the most famous of these tilings, involving just two different shapes: a kite and a dart. Though Penrose is credited for this discovery, a version of this very same mathematical tiling appears in Medieval Islamic architecture dating to the 1400s. Additionally, in the same way that a set of cubes is the three-dimensional version of a tiling of squares, these aperiodic tilings provide the basis for the atomic structure of newly discovered set of materials called quasi-crystals. In this talk, we explore how this one mathematical idea appears in surprising and beautiful places.

Catherine Blume is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her B.A. in physics from Princeton University in 2018, where she studied Earth's magnetosphere. At CU, she studies the solar interior using fluid simulations. When she is not buried beneath equations, she enjoys crocheting cat sweaters, being outside with friends, and baking banana cupcakes with (what some would say is too much) chocolate frosting.

Climate Change in Our Backyard series

Our climate is changing and we must adapt to a world that is transforming right before our eyes. Early warning signs of climate change were seen in far away places like the Arctic, Antarctica, and Greenland. Now these impacts are affecting us here at home and changing the way we live our lives. Join us as we explore the local and global impacts of climate change and ways in which we can contribute to a solution.

Photo of fire burning on a hill in San Francisco

PREVIOUS VIRTUAL TALK

Fires, Flooding, Heat Waves, Drought: Extreme Events in a Changing Climate

WATCH the recorded talk on our YouTube channel.

Join us to explore the link between extreme weather and climate change. Wildfires in the west have broken records and affected air quality across much of the country. There have been so many storms that the National Hurricane Center has run out of names for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. Has climate change actually contributed to these events? Are they becoming more frequent? Heat waves, droughts, floods, and even cold snaps. We'll talk about the mechanisms through which these events can be influenced by climate change and what we can expect to see in the future.

Erika Schreiber received her bachelor's degree in Science of Earth Systems from Cornell University in 2012, her Master's in Geography from the University of Delaware in 2015, and recently defended her Ph.D. in Geography at CU Boulder. Her Ph.D. research focused on how storms in the Arctic impact sea ice, and how climate change is affecting that relationship. She is now working at UNAVCO as a Polar Engineer, facilitating studies of Antarctic glaciers.

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Science Under the Dome

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Science of Sci-Fi series

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Science Under the Dome

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Science of Sci-Fi series

UPCOMING TALK

PREVIOUS TALK

Science and Society series

PREVIOUS TALK

Climate Change in Our Backyard series

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