The Secret Science Club presents “A Night of Chemistry and Culinary Experimentation,” Tuesday, April 13 @ the Bell House, 8 pm, FREE!

NYU Chemist Kent Kirshenbaum and Chef Will Goldfarb probe the properties, boundaries, and conventions of food

Food glorious food! Spicy pork tacos. Neopolitan pizza. Chocolate crème brulee. These mouth-watering menu items dazzle and delight the senses. But break them down into their parts and they’re merely ingredients: flour, raw meat, tomatoes, etc. Broken down further, they’re chemical elements of the periodic table, such as carbon, calcium, and nitrogen, forming chains of amino acids and polymers. Chemist Kent Kirshenbaum of NYU examines the interface between science and food so that we can better appreciate and understand what goes into our mouths and tummies. Chef Will Goldfarb explores the creation of futuristic desserts and down-home dishes using innovative, research-driven techniques. Together, Kirshenbaum and Goldfarb are founders of the Experimental Cuisine Collective. They discuss:

--What are kitchen chemistry and molecular gastronomy?
--Are chemicals (gulp) good for us?
--How does a scientific understanding of cooking help the average eater or chef?
--What mysterious concoction can they cook up on stage?

Kent Kirshenbaum is a professor of chemistry at NYU where he studies and creates new macromolecules in his lab; Dr. Kirshenbaum was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Career Award for “outstanding achievements in science” and a featured scientist on the Food Network’s “Food Detectives.” Will Goldfarb is an award-winning chef and the founder of WillPowder (a source for experimental pastry products); chef Goldfarb was the subject of a New Yorker magazine profile titled “The Dessert Lab,” and recently squared off on the Food Network Challenge: Ice Cream Clash.

Before & After

--Groove to freshly chopped tunes

--Stick around for the highly nutritional Q&A

--Try our brain-boggling brew of the night (containing elements from the “BEERiodic Table”)

The “Secret Science Club” meets Tuesday, April 13 at 8 pm @ 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

No cover. Just bring your smart self! Please bring ID: 21+

Doors open at 7:15 pm. Limited seating.

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The Secret Science Club Presents Astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer and His Quest for New Worlds on Wednesday, April 2 @ 8 pm

Fuel up your flying saucer . . . the Secret Science Club is blasting off with astrophysicist Ben Oppenheimer, the principal investigator of the Lyot Project, an ambitious mission to discover and record images of planets outside our solar system. He’ll discuss the challenges scientists face in probing for exoplanets and reveal some of the Lyot team’s latest results.

An astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, Ben Oppenheimer was the subject of a recent New York Times article “Star’s Dust May Hold Clue to New Planet,” documenting the observation that a gap in dust circling a young star in the constellation Auriga may be a planet in the making.

Dr. Oppenheimer also studies brown dwarfs, white dwarfs and galactic structure. He served on NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder Science and Technology Definition Team, and has been appointed to several National Research Council Panels, as well as numerous NASA and NSF committees.

Before and After
--Groove to space-age tunes and video in Union Hall's subterranean grotto
--Stick around for the Q&A
--Try our cosmic new cocktail: the George Jetson

The "Secret Science Club" meets April 2 at 8 p.m. in the basement @ Union Hall, 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 Ave.

No cover charge. Just bring your smart self.

Doors open at 7:30. LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE.

PLEASE BRING ID: 21 and over only.

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The Secret Science Club presents a frightfully free screening of THE TINGLER starring Vincent Price, Wednesday, March 28, 8 PM @ the Bell House

Join us for an experiment in terror!!!

Dr. Warren Chapin is investigating the scientific nature of fear. What makes the spine tingle when we’re afraid? Is it possible to die of terror? Not prone to scare easily himself, the doctor uses drugs to self-induce hallucinatory nightmares. As coroner, he finds disturbing, unexplained marks on the vertebrae of corpses and a mysterious creature lurking on an x-ray … Is fear something more than a passing emotion? To his horror, the doctor learns that fear is a frightfully LIVING force—and the only way to kill it is to scream. Don’t miss this cult classic from director William Castle in glorious black-and-white. And don't forget to scream . . . scream for your lives!

Before & After

--Learn Five Facts about Fear
--Groove to pulse-pounding tunes

--Try our fiendish cocktail of the night, the Chiller

--Win creepy-crawly door prizes!

This "mad scientist" edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, March 28 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! 

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The Secret Science Club presents a Brain-Boggling Evening with Neuroscientist and Author Paul Glimcher, Sunday, April 3, 8 pm @ the Bell House, FREE!

Think fast! Every waking moment involves choice. Android or iPhone? Pancakes or waffles? Boxers or briefs? Time to call it quits, or time for another drink? My place or yours? What exactly goes on in our brains when we’re confronted with so many options?

A leading pioneer in the new field of neuroeconomics, scientist and author Paul Glimcher uses the latest technology to uncover how brain biology controls decision-making. He asks: Why do wrong decisions sometimes feel so right? Are other animals ever irrational? Is money an outgrowth of our neural circuitry? What happens inside the brain when we choose to take risks?

The author of Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis and Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain, Dr. Glimcher is professor of Neural Science, Economics and Psychology at New York University and director of NYU’s Center for Neuroeconomics.

Before & After
--Groove to synapse-stimulating sounds
--Stick around for the cerebral Q&A
--Try our dopamine-spiked cocktail of the night, the "Brainstorm"
--Snag a signed copy of Paul Glimcher's mind-blowing new book!

JUST ADDED! This brain-boggling evening will feature a special performance by theremin player Jen Rondeau. Eerie and ethereal, the theremin is one of the earliest electronic instruments—and one that is mysteriously played without touching. (Jen Rondeau will also be performing April 7 at the Knitting Factory Brooklyn with her band Changing Modes and April 20 - 23 as part of the upcoming Ensemble Studio Theatre workshop production of Pidgeon, the new play about physicist Leon Theremin, the instrument’s inventor.)

This brainy edition of the Secret Science Club meets Sunday, April 3 at 8 pm @ 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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Destination Mars! The Secret Science Club presents Planetary Geoscientist James Head at the Bell House, Wednesday, April 1 @ 8 pm, FREE!

Put on your life support suits and set the dial to “extreme conditions” . . . the Secret Science Club is heading for the Red Planet via Antarctica.

Recent unmanned missions have revolutionized our thinking about Mars. The Red Planet is no longer known as just a dry dusty desert—but the repository for 2 to 3 million cubic kilometers of ice. Surprisingly, it turns out Mars may have a lot in common with the environment at Earth’s South Pole.

Mars expert James Head recently spent his “holidays” in Antarctica, studying the bone-chilling landscape for clues that might help explain the mysterious Martian terrain. Dr. Head asks: Could frigid water below the surface of Mars contain evidence of life—like the microscopic extremophiles surviving such conditions in Antarctica? What’s the latest news from recent Mars missions such as the Mars Express and Phoenix? Will Earthlings send a manned mission to the Red Planet?

Professor of Geological Sciences in the Planetary Geosciences Group at Brown University, Dr. James Head spent his early career at NASA, training Apollo astronauts and planning lunar landing sites. As a geological explorer, he has traveled around the world (and to the bottom of the ocean in deep-sea submersibles) to study volcanism and tectonism. He is the author of more than 300 scientific papers on topics ranging from glaciation on Mars to Venusian impact craters. Currently, he is a co-investigator for the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Mission, the NASA MESSENGER mission to Mercury and the NASA Moon Mineralogy Mapper(M3).

Before & After
--Groove to spaced-out tunes and video

--Blast off with the Secret Science Club’s quantum cocktail of the night, the “Mars Express”

--Stick around for the out-of-this-world Q&A and music from Phantogram and Big Bang TV!!

The Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, April 1 at 8 p.m. @ 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

No cover charge. Just bring your smart self!
Please bring ID: 21+. Doors open at 7:30 pm.

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The Secret Science Club’s new “theme song”—written and performed by the Dead River Company

For those of you who missed seeing it performed live at Plutopalooza (before astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s tour de force talk), listen here and check out the lyrics below.

“Secret Science Club” by the Dead River Company

I’ve got a secret for you
It’s the kind of secret that will split your mind in two

Take my hand, I’ll show you wonders
The sharpest minds speak clearly
Where there’s lightning there is thunder.

[Chorus]
Hold on to your hats, kids (at the Secret Science Club)
Shocking information (at the Secret Science Club)
Gonna blow your mind out (at the Secret Science Club)
Indulge your science addiction
Because truth is stranger than fiction

You’ve got a light, I’ll make it brighter
You got me feelin’ like a particle in the Large Hadron Collider!

Come on girls, I’m no pretender
We’re just a ragtag bunch of pencil pushers slash the Universe’s defenders

[Chorus]
Hold on to your hats, kids (at the Secret Science Club)
Shocking information (at the Secret Science Club)
Gonna blow your mind out (at the Secret Science Club)
Indulge your science addiction
Because truth is stranger than fiction

Now you’ve cracked our little code
Well hush my love and face your fears and enter the unknown

[Chorus]

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The Secret Science Club presents "A Nocturnal Garden Party" on Wednesday, April 4

GERRY MOORE LECTURES ON "THE SECRET BOTANICAL LIFE OF NYC" AT 8 P.M.
Ready to photosynthesize? Explore the weird and wonderful world of plants—especially those that thrive in our overbuilt, human-dominated landscape—with Gerry Moore, director of science for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. While other botanists are swinging through the rain forest canopy in Amazonia, Dr. Moore and his colleagues at the BBG’s “New York Metropolitan Flora Project” tromp through abandoned train yards, vacant lots, and traffic islands—on a quest for NYC’s botanical strivers and survivors.

Is this city nothing but steel and pavement? Nein! We’re gushing with biodiversity. Put a nosegay in your buttonhole, and prepare for FLOWER POWER!

GO OUT ON A LIMB WITH SINGER/SONGWRITER LEE FELDMAN AT 9:30 P.M.
“Imagine if Charlie Brown made pop records….” and that he lived in the concrete jungle. That’s the sweet, poignant, and satisfying sound of Lee Feldman. Creative wordplay, walking on the Williamsburg Bridge, cicadas, subways, and two-dimensional superheroes—are all inspirations for Feldman’s subversively catchy melodies.

Lee Feldman’s most recent CD “I’ve Forgotten Everything” has been proclaimed “unlike anything else in contemporary pop.” And Feldman’s rock musical “Starboy” has been called “simple and direct, and smile-inducing…. a trippy experience.” Don’t miss this musical night-bloomer and his florally enhanced digital piano!

--Imbibe the Aromatic Cocktails of the Night: the walloping “Planter’s Punch” and the deadly “Black Dahlia”

--Before: Groove to tunes inspired by pistils and stamens!

The “Secret Science Club” meets April 4th at 8 p.m. (and the first Wednesday night of every month) in the basement @ 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.

No cover. Just bring your own smart self.

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The Secret Science Club recommends . . .

Check out this cerebral event: The Neuroscience of the Groove!

Neuroscientists Dave Sulzer (a.k.a. composer Dave Soldier) and John Krakauer discuss the brain activity that makes us groove to music. Krakauer co-directs Columbia University's Motor Performance Laboratory and Sulzer/Soldier investigates synaptic connections that underlie memory, learning, and behavior. This event features the premiere of Soldier's "Quartet for percussion and brain waves," a live performance/experiment with drummers and electroencephalographs. (And its sponsored by our pals at CUNY’s Science & the Arts program.)

When: Monday, March 24 at 6:30 pm

Where: CUNY Grad Center, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), NYC

FREE!

Pre-registering holds your seat until 15 minutes before curtain; then seating is first come, first served. Pre-register by phone or email: 212-817-8215 or continuinged@gc.cuny.edu

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The Secret Science Club Dives Into Inner Space with Molecular Geneticist Alea Mills, Wed, March 14, 8 PM @ the Bell House, FREE!

Our genes inform everything from the color of our eyes to the thousands of biochemical processes that construct and maintain our bodies. With rapid advances in gene sequencing technology over the past decade, scientists are increasingly working to pinpoint the specific functions of genes in both wellness and disease.

Molecular geneticist Alea Mills of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is among the most preeminent of these gene hunters and a pioneer in the field of chromosome engineering. Traversing the microscopic world of the cell, she has discovered DNA hotspots that play a critical role in aging and cancer, and most recently, uncovered a genetic cluster that, when deleted, may be a cause of autism. Dr. Mills asks: Where will the future of genetic technology take us?

Before & After

--Groove to genetically altered tunes

--Try our experimental cocktail of the night, the Mutating Martini
--Stick around for the scintillating Q&A

This brainy edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, March 14 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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PLUTOPALOOZA! The Secret Science Club presents Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on Wednesday, March 18 at 8 pm @ the Bell House, $3 cover charge

photo by David Gamble

COUNTDOWN TO RE-LAUNCH . . .
Hold on to your wigs and keys, science scenesters! Union Hall and the Secret Science Club have been overwhelmed by audience demand---so it is now official: The Secret Science Club is moving from Union Hall to Brooklyn’s big new Bell House! PLUS, the Secret Science Club is debuting its first-ever "theme song," written and performed by the Dead River Company. Check it out LIVE before the Neil deGrasse Tyson lecture.

Special Event! Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson blasts off from the Bell House with a lecture on the "Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet," $3 cover

The icy little world known as Pluto is billions of miles from Earth. Yet, when the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to the status of dwarf planet in 2012, the reaction was out of this world. Defiant T-shirt slogans, and pity-filled songs all raged against Pluto’s sad fate. Hell hath no fury like a planet (and its fans) scorned. No one knows better than astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of NYC’s Hayden Planetarium, who was on the receiving end of much of this celestial wrath—including tear-stained hate mail from third-graders.

According to Tyson, Pluto may be a dwarf—but it’s still awesome. Now enthroned with its trans-Neptunian brethren in the Kuiper Belt, Pluto is the focus of intense scientific interest. NASA’s New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt spacecraft has already passed Saturn on a 9-year journey to reach and take a peek at Pluto and its moon Charon. The question, says Tyson, is not what we call Pluto, but “What’s out there?”

The director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, Neil deGrasse Tyson is host of PBS’s “Nova: ScienceNOW” and recently served on NASA's prestigious advisory council. He is the author of nine books, including his most recent The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet and the best-selling Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries. In 2012, Time magazine named Dr. Tyson one of the world’s 100 most influential people. What did People magazine name him? You got it, baby! He’s the "Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive.”

Don’t miss one freakin’ nanosecond of this cosmic talk. Get on your laser, Daddy and RIDE!!!!

Before & After
--Groove to heavenly tunes and video inspired by the cosmic ballet.

--Defy gravity with the Secret Science Club’s quantum cocktail of the night, the Big Bang (it will knock you into orbit . . .)

--Grab a signed copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s brand-new book: The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet

--Stick around for the extraterrestrial Q&A

The Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, March 18 at 8 pm @ 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.

$3 cover charge at the door. Please bring ID: 21+.

LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE. Doors open at 7:30. Come early to get a seat.

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A Night of Cosmic Mayhem with Neil deGrasse Tyson and "Starboy" on Wednesday, March 7

NEIL deGRASSE TYSON LECTURES ON OUR AWESOME (AND SCARY) UNIVERSE AT 8 P.M.
Is the universe cuddly and friendly? NO! It’s full of “monstrous gamma-ray bursts, deadly pulsars, matter-crushing gravitational fields, [and] matter-hungry black holes that flay their bloated stellar neighbors.”

The author of Death By Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson embarks on an interstellar journey to explore quasars, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, AND what will happen if you fly your spaceship too close to a black hole.

Dr. Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium, host of PBS’s Nova: scienceNOW, and current chair of the Planetary Society, originally founded by Carl Sagan. He is also the “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive,” according to People magazine,

"STARBOY": AN ANIMATED ROCK MUSICAL AT 9:30 P.M.
In composer/musician Lee Feldman’s “Starboy,” a two-dimensional superhero from a dying outer-space world falls in love with a three-dimensional girl. Starboy zaps monsters, helps old ladies cross the street, and lives in an apartment with his uncle, “the mathematician.” Feldman’s songs are haunting, way past quirky, and strangely catchy. The chunky, colorful animation is by Joe Campbell.

--Before: Groove to tunes inspired by the cosmic ballet.

--Imbibe the Quantum Cocktail of the Night: the Big Bang—it will blow your mind.....

--Purchase copies of "Starboy" and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s best-selling new book.

The “Secret Science Club” meets Wednesday, March 7th at 8 p.m. (and the first Wednesday of every month) in the basement at @ 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

NO COVER. JUST BRING YOUR OWN SMART SELF.

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The Secret Science Club presents Theoretical High-Energy Physicist Matthew Strassler, Wednesday, March 16, 8 pm @ the Bell House, FREE!

Kick it into warp drive! The Secret Science Club is heading out—way out. The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, a ginormous subterranean machine that sends subatomic particles smashing into each other at incomprehensible speeds. The resulting explosions mimic conditions just moments after the Big Bang. Theoretical physicist Matthew Strassler of Rutgers University lectures on how this phenomenal new experiment could unveil the fundamental building blocks of the universe and transform our understanding of matter, space and time, and the cosmos.

Before & After

--Groove to high-energy tunes

--Stick around for the quantum Q&A

--Try our quarky cocktail of the night, the elusive Dark Matter
--Plus! Science rapper Zach Charlop-Powers live. Oh, yeah!

The Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, March 16 @ 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!

The Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment is on the hunt for Dark Matter;
 photo courtesy of CERN

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