Pint of Science: Ben Roberts
Pint of Science: To space!
Date: Wednesday 15 May
Doors: 6:30 pm
Event: 7:00–8:30 pm
Cost: $8
Location: Stone & Wood Brewery Brisbane, 99 Bridge Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, QLD 4006
Dr Cullan Howlett, Dr Ben Roberts and Hugh McDougall take us into space to explore sound, black holes, and dark energy.
The next frontier in fundamental physics
Ben Roberts (University of Queensland)
Our current theories are extremely successful, though they leave many questions unanswered. Why is there more matter than antimatter? What is dark matter and dark energy, and do they really exist? This talk will explore these questions, and how we attempt to answer them.
The sound of space
Cullan Howlett (The University of Queensland)
We all know "in space, no-one can hear you scream". In truth, space is full of the sounds of "gravitational waves" as black holes and neutron stars collide. Cullan will describe how we can hear these, and what they tell us about these mysterious objects.
Reverberation Mapping: How light echoes can tells us about supermassive black holes
Hugh McDougall (University of Queensland)
Distant supermassive black holes at the core of distant galaxies appear as faint pin-pricks of light. For the brightest of these, we can use the clever trick of “reverberation mapping”, tracking the time that light takes to echo around the galactic nucleus, to measure the masses of these ancient objects far into the cosmic past.
Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash
Major funding support
The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present.