Presents

There is more than five times as much dark matter in the universe as normal matter. Through gravity, we have observed evidence of dark matter's existence for nearly 100 years, yet we do not know what the nature of dark matter is. In this talk, Sarah Pearson will take you on a journey through our universe's history and explain how astrophysicists have used the distribution, movement, and growth of galaxies to map out how much dark matter there is in the universe. She will further reveal how stellar streams, which form as smaller gravitationally bound collections of stars are torn apart into distinct streaks on the sky, might hold the key to unravel the nature of dark matter.

In this virtual conversation, New York Times science and global health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli will chat with Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor University’s National School of Tropical Medicine, about the COVID-19 vaccines. They will discuss the science behind the vaccine and address the public’s questions, concerns and misunderstandings. For example, is one vaccine better than another? Can the vaccines damage our DNA? What’s in the vaccines? Should anyone not get the vaccine? This presentation will fill you in on what’s going on now and where we need to get.

In this lecture, Alex Kontorovich will describe some of these connections, both ancient and modern. He will also showcase how mathematics is not a random collection of disjointed facts (as often learned in school), but rather numerous sweeping landscapes, all deeply interconnected and influencing each others’ development.

In this presentation, Rebecca Goldin will share some humorous as well as serious stories about statistical bloopers in the media, peppered with suggestions for better communication. Numerical reasoning can be powerful, she says, when we move past politics and morality to clarify what quantitative information actually tells us, what it does not and what it cannot.

Like a musical composition, physicist Stephon Alexander will present a four-part movement, each containing a vignette of experiences he had interacting and collaborating with artists and musicians (such as Brian Eno, Ned Kahn, Melvin Gibbs, Will Calhoun, Ornette, Dawn Meson and Rosemary Goodell) and how those interactions influenced his scientific ideas, research, approach and creativity.

During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Czar Nicholas and his family disappeared. In 1920, a mysterious woman surfaced in Germany claiming to be his youngest daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov. In this presentation, Amanda McBrien will talk about this transformative time in Russian history while illustrating how modern science, through the use of forensic evidence and DNA comparisons, helped solve the mystery of what really happened to Anastasia.