Science Circle

Moon Base meeting
2024-03-25 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-04-01 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-04-15 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-04-22 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-04-29 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-05-06 10:00 - 11:00, 2024-05-13 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Moon base

Mathematics Club
2024-03-28 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-04 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-11 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-18 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-25 08:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-02 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-05-09 16:00 - 17:00 | Maths Club

Inventions
2024-03-30 10:00 - 11:00 | The Lighthouse Café
Discussion: Which invention do you appreciate most?

Hypatia
2024-03-31 09:45 - 12:00 | Auditorium
Following Robert Hendrix’s presentation about Emmy Noether on March 23, today we will look together at Hypatia’s life story. Log in 15 minutes early because you need to download something. The film is 2 hours long and is on Blu-ray. Grab your popcorn, cup of tea or whatever you like… let’s enjoy and dive into a dark part of the history of science.
Members Only event!

Swimming with the (pep)tides
2024-04-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
Swimming with the (pep)tides
Stephen L. Gasior, Ph.D
You have probably heard of the type 2 diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic, Mounjaro, Rybelsus, Wegovy, and Saxenda. These are a recent entry into the drug market and are expected to be billion dollar blockbusters. But, they also represent a whole new class of drugs with even more potential for human therapy. This drug class is called peptides. Peptides are like little stubs of proteins made up of only several amino acids but are common signaling molecules in the body. But only recently has the chemistry come about to make them useful and stable drugs. This presentation will cover peptides in general then talk about the first 3 to market drugs including Bremelanotide and Afamelanotide.

Classical Concert
2024-04-07 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-04-14 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-04-21 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-04-28 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-05-05 07:00 - 08:00, 2024-05-12 07:00 - 08:00 | The Lighthouse Café

Science and Zeitgeist
2024-04-07 10:00 - 12:00 | Auditorium
Everyone knows one or more life stories of, for example, Socrates, Hypatia, Galileo Galilei or Nikola Tesla.
Lives that were heavily influenced by the political winds of the time, several even ruined.
2024 and history repeats itself. Today we are going to watch a documentary together, which we will discuss next week. The documentary lasts 2 hours, halfway through we take a 10-minute break so everyone can grab a snack.

A History of Quantum Mechanics
2024-04-13 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
A History of Quantum Mechanics
By Robert Lawson Brown, Ph.D., physicist

The presentation will cover the founding of quantum mechanics in the period from 1900 to the 1950s. In addition, there will be an overview of the current efforts in quantum mechanics.
Max Planck and the Birth of Quantum Theory (1900)
Albert Einstein and the Quantum Theory of Light (1905)
Niels Bohr’s Model of the Atom (1913)
Louis de Broglie’s Hypothesis (1924)
Werner Heisenberg’s Matrix Mechanics (1925)
Erwin Schrödinger’s Wave Mechanics (1926)
The Copenhagen Interpretation
Paul Dirac and Quantum Electrodynamics (1928)
Quantum Entanglement and EPR Paradox (1935)
Richard Feynman and Quantum Electrodynamics (1940s-1950s)
Many-Worlds Interpretation (1957)
Modern Experiments in Quantum Mechanics
Additional notes.
From the World Quantum Day website
The World Quantum Day is celebrated on April 14, a reference to 4.14, the rounded first digits of Planck’s constant: 4.1356677×10−15 eV⋅s = 0.000 000 000 000 004 1356677 electron volt second, a product of energy and time that is the fundamental constant governing quantum physics.
The World Quantum Day aims to engage the general public in the understanding and discussion of Quantum Science and Technology.
It is a decentralized and bottom-up initiative, inviting all scientists, engineers, educators, communicators, entrepreneurs, technologists, historians, philosophers, artists, museologists, producers, etc., and their organizations to develop their activities, such as outreach talks, exhibitions, lab tours, panel discussions, interviews, artistic creations, etc., to celebrate the World Quantum Day around the World.

Science & Zeitgeist, a Discussion
2024-04-14 10:00 - 11:00 | The Lighthouse Café
Last week we watched a documentary together and today we will discuss the impact. Everyone has had a week with their own thoughts on this matter and I would like to hear from everyone what your reflections have been.

SC & Chemistry World at SLB
2024-04-20 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
The 21st birthday for Second Life is coming up, and will be celebrated in the month of June. Linden Labs have announced the theme for the celebration will be “Elements” and explains “This theme invites us to explore the fundamental components that make up our vast virtual landscape and the diverse communities within it.” The Science Circle and Chemistry World regions would like to propose to Linden Labs that we display side-by-side celebrations of the elements of science, using different representations of the Periodic Table as framing devices for our concept maps of the sciences. The full proposal is due May 1, so this meeting will be used to present the framework and preliminary ideas, call for volunteers to help, and organize how we will put together our build.

How can we best support highly intelligent children/students in our education system?
2024-04-27 10:00 - 11:00 | The Lighthouse Café
Gifted children and their school careers… often paved with obstacles by our rigid education system.
As a parent, being invited to school for the umpteenth time because… Your child finishes faster than the rest of the class.
Because… he/she is obsessed with scientific and philosophical issues and cannot concentrate much on doing the same set of sums repeatedly.
Because… he/she answers all the mathematical questions correctly, without writing down the entire sum.
Because… he/she is impatient when language, mathematics, etc. keeps coming back.
Because… he/she always knows the answer fastest and that makes other children in the class ‘lazy’.
Because… he/she always stays longer at school to consult with teachers and ask questions.
Because… he/she cannot tolerate injustice and can clearly justify his/her position… with the result that the entire class ends up in chaos.
In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Education claims on its website that educational institutions receive extra funds to better guide these children. As a parent, I have not noticed any of this over the past 18 years. The schools our son could attend tried to get out of it and pass it on to the next educational institution. A toddler who knows more about Saturn than his kindergarten teacher is not a well-liked child.
Schools seem more interested in guiding all students through their 14-year school career at the same level. Not too much effort, no exceptions, all the same standard education. But as a result, society misses out on a lot of talent. Young people who hardly get through high-school because they have been dulled by previous teachers in a rigid education system.
What can we do to provide this group, 2,5% of society, with what they need? In the Netherlands that is 430,000 people, worldwide 14,500,000 (14,5 million).

Humans in Space, Part I
2024-05-04 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
After a decades-long hiatus, humans are once again focused on returning to the Moon, and we are seriously considering voyages to worlds beyond it for the first time. This is the first of a two-part series on how we got into space decades ago and our more recent efforts to push beyond the confines of the Earth.
Dreams of going into space date back thousands of years, at least to the Greek’s mythological tale of Icarus. It was not until Isaac Newton’s publications on space mechanics that we started to comprehend what it might take to get into space. The imagination of Jules Verne in the late 1800s inspired Wernher von Braun’s rocket programs in the 1930s-1940s, which succeeded in first reaching space. His follow-up work for the United States in the 1950s-1960s, and that of those who emulated him in the Soviet Union, achieved the means to send animals and then humans into Earth’s orbit, and to finally landing humans on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.
The initial ‘Space Race’ gave way to more domestic agendas for crewed missions. Hundreds of flights were dedicated to building and then supplying Earth-orbiting space stations, and astronauts from many countries got their first trip into space aboard either Soviet/Russian Soyuz or U.S. Space Transportation System (STS, aka Space Shuttle) flights.
The most fascinating part of these efforts to put humans in space is not the details of the missions themselves, but the very real human side associated with these efforts that were often not revealed until years later. Come join us at The Science Circle to learn about why and how we decided to go into space and what happened when we did.
By Phil Youngblood

Humans in Space, Part II
2024-05-11 10:00 - 11:00 | Auditorium
After a decades-long hiatus, humans are once again focused on returning to the Moon, and we are seriously considering voyages to worlds beyond it for the first time. This is the first of a two-part series on how we got into space decades ago and our more recent efforts to push beyond the confines of the Earth.
In the last few decades, both national and commercial entities have developed plans to go to the Moon, and beyond. A de facto Space Race 2 has begun, but this time there is a more diverse set of ‘players’ and they have a more diverse set of reasons for going there.
China determined to became the third nation in space as early as the late 1960s. Their quest was suspended in the 1970s but revived in 1992, resulting in the first crewed mission in 2003. China has continued efforts alone since then, resulting in a crewed space station currently in Earth’s orbit. Recent uncrewed missions to the Moon are part of a program with the goal to land humans near the lunar South Pole and to build a base there within the next decade, and then to push on to Mars.
In the 2000s, the United States at first planned a solo return to the Moon, but that plan was scrapped in favor of the Artemis Accord, a collaboration of many countries and commercial entities. In addition to successful uncrewed missions, including craft orbiting the Moon today, the uncrewed Artemis I launched in December 2023 and safely returned to Earth in a rehearsal for the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972 that was originally scheduled for late 2024 but has now been pushed back to at least September 2025. Artemis 3 in intended to be a crewed landing on the Moon. A joint lunar space station called Gateway is also in the design stage.
The most fascinating part of these efforts to put humans in space is not the details of the missions themselves, but the very real human side associated with them. Come join us at The Science Circle to learn about why and how we have decided to go back to the Moon and beyond and all of what is involved in doing so.
By Phil Youngblood
