Flower Power! The Secret Science Club presents Plant Geneticist Rob Martienssen, Wednesday, August 24, 8 PM @ the Bell House, FREE!

Rob Martienssen studies the strange genetics and sex lives of plants—and his garden-variety discoveries have rocked the scientific world. Until recently plant breeders used trial-and-error methods to create newer, more beautiful, and more useful hybrids. Now Dr. Martienssen and his colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory are unlocking the molecular mechanisms at the heart of plant evolution. They hope to use their new knowledge to unravel the stories behind some of the world’s most successful breeds and to create the future’s most awesome new cultivars.

Dr. Martienssen asks:

--Can we breed better biofuels? Could duckweed—a plant growing in NYC’s ponds and parklands— be supercharged to become an efficient source of energy?

--What’s the story behind King Corn? How exactly was maize—the most widely grown crop in the U.S.—created in Ancient Mesoamerica from a native grass that looks almost nothing like corn?

--What does biotechnology have to do with food security and climate change? Could the sequencing of plant genomes and a fundamental understanding of “jumping genes” lead to the production of higher-yielding crops that consume fewer resources?

Before & After

--Groove to tunes inspired by pistils and stamens

--Try our cocktail of the night, the Planter’s Punch (pow!)

--Stick around for the cultivated Q&A

This edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, August 24 at 8 p.m. @ the Bell House, 149 7^th St. (between 2^nd and 3^rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F or G to 4th Ave; R to 9^th St.

No cover. Just bring your smart self!

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

The Secret Science Club presents an ENCORE SCREENING of “Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives,” Wed., August 10, 8 PM @ the Bell House, FREE!

Can time move backwards? Is the future different on other worlds? Are meetings of the Secret Science Club forbidden in a parallel universe?

Singer-songwriter Mark Everett of the band Eels grew up not knowing that his father, Hugh Everett, was a genius—to him, his dad was the chain-smoking guy who didn’t say much at the dinner table. The fact that Hugh Everett was one of the world’s pre-eminent quantum mechanics, the physicist who came up with the Theory of Parallel Universes was just one more thing they didn’t discuss.

Sadly, Hugh Everett’s theory was so revolutionary—so trippy in fact—that its elegance and importance were not recognized until well after his death. (Mark Everett was just 18 when he found his father lying dead at age 51 on the family’s couch.) Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives chronicles the journey of the musical-but-math-challenged son to learn more about his father’s profound contributions to science and the “Many Worlds” in which we all—for better or worse—may play out different versions of ourselves.

Mind-boggling and moving, this original BBC cut of the documentary features physicist Max Tegmark of MIT, plus a guest appearance by Schrodinger’s Cat.

Before & After

--Groove to tunes from other dimensions (wha-ha-ha!)

--Plunge into the Time Warp, a tessalating cocktail that will give you multi-vision

This cinematic edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, August 10 at 8 p.m. @ the Bell House, 149 7^th St. (between 2^nd and 3^rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510 Subway: F or G to 4th Ave; R to 9^th St

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

Red alert! We're running out of rocket fuel. But never fear . . . Kickstarter is here!

Science scenesters, we need your help! We just launched a Kickstarter campaign to jumpstart "Secret Science Club: Season Five" and to help make it our most creative and mind-blowing season ever. And here's the cool part: There are awesome rewards for your Kickstarter pledges. We've got T-shirts, tickets to upcoming special events, and other swag (plus, we'll be adding new items periodically).

The Secret Science Club is serious and passionate about science communication and building bridges between science, the humanities, and the arts. As we approach our 5th anniversary, we're committed to keeping our regular monthly events free, and we're also determined to expand our low-cost programming to feed the need for more public science events. Failure is not an option!

To make a pledge, learn more about our secret mission, or just check out the rewards, visit us on Kickstarter. And thanks for your support!

Meanwhile . . . stay tuned for information about upcoming Secret Science Club events on Wednesday, August 10, and Wednesday, August 24, at the Bell House. 

Journey to the Center of Your Mind! The Secret Science Club presents Brain Explorer Partha Mitra, Wednesday, July 6, 8 pm @ the Bell House, FREE!

It's all in your head . . . One hundred billion neurons. One hundred trillion neural connections. The architecture of the human brain is more complex than any super computer. In fact, neuroscientists recently calculated that one single human brain contains more “switches” than all the computers on Earth combined. And yet . . .  we still know so little about what makes the mind tick.

Partha Mitra of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is seeking to change all that, embarking on a bold new project to map the brain’s architecture. Dr. Mitra asks: What is the brain circuitry that underlies human behavior and emotion? How many basic emotions do we have, and what causes them? How can we fundamentally expand our knowledge of the brain’s systems and interconnections in order to better treat neurological conditions and diseases of the mind?

A neuroscientist and theoretical physicist, Dr. Mitra is the Crick-Clay Professor of Biomathematics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The author of Observed Brain Dynamics and over 100 scientific papers, he is also a musician and artist, recently collaborating with Berlin-based sculptor Fre Ilgen on artistic renditions of neurosystem anatomy. Earlier this year, Dr. Mitra was awarded a prestigious Transformative Grant from the National Institutes of Health for his Brain Architecture Project. These special grants were designed to fund “exceptionally innovative, high-risk, original and/or unconventional research that has the potential to create new or challenge existing scientific paradigms.”

Before & After

--Groove to wet-wired tunes

--Stick around for the nervy Q&A

--Peek into Dr. Mitra’s mind-blowing microscope!

--Try our synapse-stimulating cocktail of the night, the Circuit Party

Don't miss one microsecond of this mind-expanding evening!

This cerebral edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, July 6 at 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn, p: 718.643.6510. 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! 

It’s a Planet of Sound! The Secret Science Club presents Sensory Neuroscientist Jim Hudspeth, Thursday, June 9, 8 pm @ the Bell House, FREE

FEAST YOUR EARS . . . Waves of sound travel through the air at about 760 mph. But what happens when they reach the human ear? Our ears process information 1,000 times faster than our eyes, and our sense of hearing is so discriminating we can distinguish more than 300,000 sounds. In fact, if our ears were any more sensitive, we would hear the random motion of air molecules bumping against our eardrums.

World-renowned sensory neuroscientist Jim Hudspeth has revolutionized our understanding of how biological and neural networks process auditory inputs. Over the last three decades, his research has demonstrated how thousands of microscopic cells in the inner ear sway with vibrations, starting a cascade of neurotransmissions to the brain—translating sound waves into everything from Beethoven to Lady Gaga.

Dr. Hudspeth asks: What do we know about the sense of hearing, and how did it evolve? How is hearing different among different species? Is there such a thing as a bionic ear? Can sound-sensitive cells be repaired, regenerated, or even built to aid the deaf and hearing impaired?

Co-founder of the journal Neuron and winner of numerous awards in the fields of neuroscience, biophysics, and otolaryngology, Dr. Hudspeth is the F.M. Kirby Professor at Rockefeller University, director of Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, and investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

JUST ADDED! Lit-hop artist Baba Brinkman opens the night with an aural report from his smash show, The Rap Guide to Evolution. Darwin got it all going on!

Before & After

--Get drowned in sound at our quadraphonic cabearet

--Sample our supersonic cocktail of the night, the “Mach 5”

--Stick around for the fortissimo Q&A
--Door prizes! Two lucky peeps will win free tix to see The Rap Guide to Evolution live at the SoHo Playhouse

The Secret Science Club meets Thursday, June 9 at 8 pm @ the Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. 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.

The Secret Science Club Goes Boom with Experimenter Extraordinaire David Maiullo, Wednesday, May 4, 8 pm @ the Bell House, FREE!

Feel the electricity, the vibrations, the friction! Physics has never been this steamy!

David Maiullo of Rutgers University brings his traveling physics roadshow to the Secret Science Club for a night of wonder and experimentation. Co-host of the National Geographic Channel’s new series Humanly Impossible, Maiullo reveals the mysterious forces of the universe, using beds of nails, glasses of wine, liquid nitrogen, and a lab-made cannon. Who knows what forms of potential energy may be unleashed? Don’t miss this physics phantasmagoria . . .

Before & After
--Groove to the music of the spheres
--Stick around for the quantum Q&A
--Try our cosmic cocktail of the night, the Heavenly Motion

This edition of the Secret Science Club meets Wednesday, May 4, 2011 @ 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.

Kinda spooky, kinda wow...Thursday, April 28, Secret Science Club Goes to the Opera

The Secret Science Club is teaming up with the L Magazine to host a cocktail party following Thursday evening’s performance of Séance on a Wet Afternoon at City Opera. Everyone with tickets to the opera is invited, and when the Séance is over, Secret Science Club will materialize with ghost-busting grooves and haunting experimentation.


Special guests at the post-opera “sci- éance” include:
--Neuroscientist and composer Dave Sulzer, creating wraithlike music from brainwaves
--Physics presenter David Maiullo, combating the supernatural with a sledgehammer and pipettes

Scary! Grab your opera glasses and get over to the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on Thursday, April 28. Séance on a Wet Afternoon starts at 8 pm, and the free cocktails start flowing afterwards in the Fourth Ring. Opera tickets can be snagged for as low as $12.