The Secret Science Club presents World Population Expert Joel E. Cohen on Wednesday, March 4 at 8 pm @ Union Hall

Can conservation succeed with 9 billion people on the planet?

Every day the world’s population grows by approximately 200,000 people. That means every 40 days, the planet adds enough new people to replace the entire population of New York City.

Mathematician and population expert Joel E. Cohen asks: How many Homo sapiens can the Earth support? How is the exploding human population affecting the Earth’s physical, biological, and chemical environments? What will happen as the population grows larger, older, and more urban?

A recipient of the MacArthur genius grant and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, Dr. Cohen is Professor of Populations and Head of the Laboratory of Populations at Rockefeller University and Columbia University. His research deals with the demography, ecology, epidemiology and social organization of human and non-human populations and with mathematical concepts applicable to those fields. He is the author of more than a dozen books and over 300 scientific papers.

Before & After
--Groove to an ever-multiplying collection of tunes in Union Hall’s subterranean grotto, stick around for the Q&A, and try our explosive new cocktail, the Population Bomb.

The “Secret Science Club” meets Wednesday, March 4 at 8 pm @ Union Hall, 702 Union St. (at 5th Ave.) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, p: 718.638.4400 Subway: R to Union St.; F to 4th Ave.; Q, 2, 3, 4, 5 to Atlantic Ave.

No cover charge. Just bring your smart self.
Doors open at 7:30. LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE.

Tick tock . . .

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The Secret Science Club presents “A Mind-blowing Evening,” Tuesday, March 9, 8 PM @ the Bell House, FREE!

Neuroscientists Joseph LeDoux and Daniela Schiller lecture on fear, memory, and the brain. Then they jam with their "heavy mental" band, the Amygdaloids.

Dr. LeDoux and Dr. Schiller discuss:
--What is fear? What parts of the brain are most involved with emotions?
--How are frightening and traumatic memories stored? Can fearful memories go "out of contol"?

--Are memories subject to revision, like stories? Can bad memories be erased? Should they be?
--What are links between music, brain biology, and our emotions?

Plus! The Amygdaloids perform original songs like “Memory Pill,” “Mind Over Matter,” “Brainstorm,” and “Piece of My Mind”
“They’re not rocket scientists. They’re brain scientists who rock it!”
The Amygdaloids are

-- Joseph LeDoux, guitarist, professor of neuroscience and psychology at NYU, and author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self
-- Daniela Schiller, drummer, NYU neuroscientist, and Moth StorySlam winner
-- Tyler Volk, guitarist, biologist, science director of NYU’s Environmental Studies Program, and author of CO2 Rising and Metapatterns
-- Gerald McCollam, bass player and solutions architect

Before & After
--Groove to dopamine-drenched sounds
--Take your brain on a bender . . . Sample our super-smart cocktail, the Synapse Sling!
--Stick around for the brain-boggling Q&A

FREE! Just bring your smart self.
Doors open at 7:30 pm. Please bring ID: 21+.

This mind-blowing edition of the “Secret Science Club” meets Tuesday, March 9 @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th

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March Madness! Union Hall's "Secret Science Club" Presents TWO Extraordinary Events

Nobel Prize-Winning Biologist Paul Nurse lectures on Wednesday, March 5 @ 8 pm.

British biochemist Paul Nurse has it ALL going on.
--Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to humanity
--Co-host of the science series on PBS’s Charlie Rose Show
-- Winner of the Nobel Prize for illuminating the process by which cells copy themselves—and furthering our understanding of growth, development, and cancer.
-- And to top everything off, Sir Paul is now officially a New Yorker! (He’s president of NYC’s prestigious Rockefeller University.)

Break out your test tubes and get ready to bust out of the winter doldrums, as Paul Nurse takes us on a whirlwind tour of life’s most basic unit: the cell.

Before and After
--Screen the special bio-video by scientist/film-maker Alexis Gambis: A Fruit Fly in New York
--Groove to science-inspired tunes
--Stick around for the Q&A
--Sample the cocktail of the night—the Night Nurse. It will fluff your pillow!

The “Secret Science Club” meets @ Union Hall, 702 Union St. (at 5th Ave.) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, p: 718.638.4400. Subway: R to Union St.; F to 4th Ave.; Q, 2, 3, 4, 5 to Atlantic Ave.

No cover charge. Doors open at 7:30. LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE. PLEASE BRING ID: 21 and over only. Pocket protectors suggested.

Then . . .

Your Brain on Music at BAM on Saturday, March 8 @ 6:30 pm

A mind-blowing performance of John Adams’ 21st-century masterpiece, Dharma at Big Sur, is launched in BAM’s mothership of an opera house by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The Secret Science Club is onboard with a pre-concert soirée, featuring free brew and a chance to “Ask the Neuroscientist.”

Pre-concert cerebral soirée at 6:30 pm, sponsored by The Onion and Peak Organic Brewing Company
Grab yourself a complimentary pale ale, and ask our resident neuroscientist “Why does music influence our emotions? and “Can harmony transform my brain chemistry?” Free drinks! Door prizes!

Alter Your Perceptions at 7:30 pm with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Prepare to be saturated by pleasurable neurotransmitters as John Adams’ concerto for electric violin—Dharma at Big Sur—fills the opera house. Also on the bill: Musicians seated throughout the auditorium perform Toro Takemitsu’s Signals from Heaven and create a sound sensation that will rewire your temporal lobe. Plus Takemitsu’s Three Film Scores and Béla Bartók’s Divertimento.

Price: $25 includes a ticket to the concert in the opera house’s best available seats, entrance to the pre-concert soiree with FREE libations, and the opportunity to display your “geek chic” badge of honor. LIMITED AVAILABILITY.

How to get tickets: Just call the BP Patrons Services line at (718) 488-5913 and identify yourself as a Secret Science Club party creature!

Where: This special edition of the Secret Science Club meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Natman Room—BAM’s private lounge—in the Peter J. Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Howard Gilman Opera House in the Peter J. Sharp Building.

Getting to BAM: Via subway: 2,3,4,5, B, D, M, N, R, Q to Atlantic/Pacific; or the G to Fulton. Click here for a neighborhood map and driving directions

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The Secret Science Club presents Cognitive Neuroscientist David Carmel, Wednesday, February 22, 8 PM @ the Bell House, FREE!

There are things known, and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception . . . 

Our sensory organs are what connect us to our environment, allowing for our survival, relationships, and experiences. But how is all this sensory data — light, shadow, the motion of molecules — interpreted? Do your eyes ever deceive you? Is your mind playing tricks? Neuroscientist David Carmel of NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science uses brain imaging and behavioral experiments to explore how the brain constructs our perception of the world and how those perceptions can be manipulated. He also addresses the latest scientific research on consciousness, which attempts to answer the question, “How does brain activity make humans self-aware?”

Before & After

--Groove to wet-wired tunes

--Stick around for the sensational Q&A

--Try our synapse-stimulating cocktail of the night, the Gray Matter

This brain-boggling edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, February 22, 2012, at 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 St. Doors open at 7:30 pm. Please bring ID: 21+. 

Free! Just bring your smart self.

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The Secret Science Club presents Dinosaur Hunter Stephen Brusatte, Thursday, February 17, 8 PM @ the Bell House, FREE!

The beast is out of the box! 
The Secret Science Club goes on a post-Valentine’s rampage with the Mesozoic Era’s most beloved creature, Tyrannosaurus rex. Paleontologist Stephen Brusatte of the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University lectures on recently discovered tyrannosaur species, new thinking about dinosaur evolution, and the hunt for fossils in Europe, China, and the American West. Dig it! This is one creature feature you don’t want to miss!

Before & After
--Groove to prehistoric tunes
--Stick around for the Cretaceous Q&A
--Try our Darwinian cocktail of the night, the T. Rex on the Beach. (No schnapps, but lots of bite . . .)

The Secret Science Club meets Thursday, February 17 @ the Bell House, 149 7^th St. (between 2^nd and 3^rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510  Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9^th St; F or G to Smith/9^th.

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

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Calling all filmmakers . . . Submit your science-themed film today!

Have you made an original narrative film with a scientific or technological theme? Or a film with a scientist, engineeer or mathematician as its leading character?

Then don't forget to submit your science-loving film to the 2012 Imagine Science Film Festival!

Mystery. Comedy. Techno thriller. Animation. And Beyond . . . Click here for a complete set of festival submission guidelines.

Once accepted, your film is up for 2 awards, sponsored by the science journal, Nature. The $2,500 Nature Scientific Merit Award will go to the film that most accurately portrays science. The $2,500 Nature People’s Choice Award will go to the film voted the best by audience members.

The Imagine Science Film Festival takes place in October 2012 in New York City. For festival updates, click here. And stay tuned . . .

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Cosmology and Unsolvable Mysteries

Union Hall’s “Secret Science Club” is back with more mind-bending lectures, chemical libations, and star-gazing sounds!! Wednesday, February 7th @ 7:30 pm Union Hall’s “Secret Science Club” presents:

Infinite Questions with physicist/astronomer Janna Levin and the music of Jane LeCroy and Transmitting
Buckle up, and journey into the cosmos with author and physicist Janna Levin, as she explores mathematics, literature, and the secrets of the universe. A professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College, Levin delves into the issues of madness and genius, transfinite arithmetic, chaos and curved spacetime, time warps, invisible strings, and naked singularities.

The author of A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines and How the Universe Got Its Spots, Levin asks: Is the universe infinite or just really big? Can there be a Theory of Everything? How do scientists of the past (notably logician Kurt Godel and code-breaker Alan Turing) help us understand key questions in physics? What is knowable? Don’t miss this brain-bending ride to the edge of human knowledge!

Then .... TRANSMITTING: The Words and Beat of the Universe
With songs about deep space and biology, TRANSMITTING was recently the band in residence at the Liberty Science Center. Led by poet and lead singer Jane LeCroy, TRANSMITTING features multi-instrumentalist Tom Abbs (upright bass, didgeridoo, firecrackers, tuba, and percussion toys) and the human beatboxer, Kid Lucky. TRANSMITTING’s funky and cosmic sound is complemented by a half set of improvisation, which incorporates questions and words from the audience.

--Before and in the Tweens: Groove to tunes inspired by the Cosmic Ballet!

--Imbibe the Libation of the Night, the “Time Warp,” and travel to another dimension.…

The “Secret Science Club” meets February 7th at 7:30 p.m. (and the first Wednesday night of every month) in the basement @ Union Hall.

Union Hall is at 702 Union St. (at 5th Ave.) in Park Slope, Brooklyn p: 718.638.4400 Web: unionhallny.com Subway: R to Union St.; F to 4th Ave.; Q, 2, 3, 4, 5 to Atlantic

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The Secret Science Club presents Molecular Biologist Gregory Hannon, Tuesday, February 9th, 8 PM @ the Bell House, FREE!

Put on your lab coats and prepare to enter the world of inner space . . .

Molecular biologist Gregory Hannon of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is one of the world’s foremost genetic researchers, deciphering the mechanisms used by cells to fight invaders and that soon may be used to create treatments for cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Dr. Hannon is a pioneer in the field of RNA interference (RNAi), a powerful new tool for gene analysis. Hannon and his colleagues have harnessed RNAi, a naturally occurring process of gene regulation, to selectively turn off genes in living cells. Hannon uses the technique to study cancer development and to probe the mechanisms that make this method of gene control so effective.

The author of over 200 scientific papers, Dr. Hannon was recently in the news with groundbreaking research on the origins of a mysterious communicable cancer that is attacking the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial, the Tasmanian Devil. He is the recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, and the American Association for Cancer Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research.

Plus!

Scientist-and-rhymer Zach Charlop-Powers performs the PCR rap!

Before & After
--Groove to genetically engineered tunes
--Imbibe our scientifically inspired cocktail, the Cell-o-bration!
--Stick around for the scintillating Q&A

The “Secret Science Club” meets @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th

Doors open at 7:30 pm. Please bring ID: 21+. FREE! Just bring your smart self.

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