Café Scientifique York

Whatever is the 'Matter'? The Search for the Missing Fifth of the Universe
The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, St Martins Courtyard, 13-17 Coney Street, York YO1 9QL

Café Scientifique is an informal evening of lively discussion revolving around contemporary scientific issues of the day. Each meeting begins with a short talk from an invited science-related speaker, followed by up to an hour of open discussion including a Q & A session. Everyone is welcome to attend and express their views, or to just enjoy a drink and listen. No scientific knowledge is assumed and everyone can participate. Please note that admission is free but by ticket only.

Date: Thursday 9 December 2010
Venue: The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, St Martins Courtyard, 13-17 Coney Street, York YO1 9QL
Time: 7.30pm - 9.00pm

CERN, the LHC and the Search for the Missing Fifth of the Universe: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has now finished smashing protons together at the highest energies ever seen in the lab for 2010. The data collected so far may provide evidence for the mysterious "dark matter", thought to make up a fifth of everything.

What is Dark Matter? How do you make it? How can you "see" it in the detectors at CERN? Why do we even think that it exists?

Tom Whyntie, a PhD student at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment and Imperial College London, will attempt to answer all of this and more. He is studying for a PhD at Imperial College London, having completed an undergraduate degree in Experimental and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College). He is currently writing up his work on the CMS experiment, a 12,500 tonne, cathedral-sized ‘digital camera' one hundred metres under the ground near the Switzerland-France border, as part of a team of around 3000 physicists. The team have been taking pictures of what our Universe might have looked like a few billionths of a second after the Big Bang in an effort to understand exactly how the fundamental 'Lego bricks' of existence fit together.

Tom has received awards from the Institute of Physics for his lecturing, performing in locations as varied as Cambridge, London, Portsmouth, Dublin, Enfield and Romania. He has also featured at the Cheltenham, Cambridge and Brighton Science Festivals, as well as the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

Venue Information and How to Book a Ticket
Audience capacity at The Basement is limited to 70.

http://www.thebasementyork.co.uk/venue-info/
The evening is free but places are limited so we highly recommend that you book your place(s) in advance by calling City Screen Picturehouse Box Office on T 0871 704 2054 and collect your ticket(s) from the Box Office. The Café does not make a profit or pay a fee to the speaker.
 
Café Scientifique, York is supported by Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency for Yorkshire and the Humber. Science City York would like to thank the staff at the Basement, City Screen Picturehouse York for their assistance.