The Sydney Atheists Monthly Talk - Carl Sagan Day

UTS Room: CB02.03.17

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November 9th is the 78th anniversary of Carl Sagan's birth, and we pay tribute to his contributions in popularising the universe. He was an accomplished astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist. He served as a Fellow of CSICOP, then the major skeptical body, thus promoting naturalistic rather than supernatural explanations of the origins of our universe, galaxy, star, planet and life.

Headline talk;"Dark energy, acceleration of the space's
expansion rate, and the fate
of the Universe: how do we know about this?" - Krzysztof Bolejko

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Synopsis;Recent decades brought a number of new discoveries, which shaped the way we understand and view our Universe - last year's Nobel Prize was for one of such discoveries.
During my talk I would discuss how cosmologists use observational data to test their theories. I would present the modern view on our Universe and address issues such as dark energy, acceleration of the expansion rate of the Universe and the theories as to its future fate.

Second talk; "Ode to the Higgs" - Ian Bryce This talk will outline the discovery of the Higgs Boson, and its implications for the origin and workings of the universe. What would Sagan make of it? The talk will include a presentation of his new poem Ode to the Higgs. Depending on time we will attempt a quick panel discussion post these two talks.

There will be an additional meetup posted for a post talk dinner at a nearby restaurant, please RSVP to that meetup if you are going to that at least 3 days in prior.

Location: http://lostoncampus.com.au/878 If you come into UTS via the main entrance off of Broadway, you will see the campus security office on your right, to the far left are lifts and stairs, if you take the lift or stairs down one level to level 3, at the bottom of the stairs you go left, follow the corridor, and you will come to a smaller set of stairs, the room is diagonally left of the bottom of the stairs. (around the corner to the interfaith rooms funnily enough). If you get lost go back to the security office and ask for directions.
Unfortunately UTS doesn't have a campus map online or available on site, so you will need to follow the nomenclature of the room which is here; http://www.fmu.uts.edu.au/campus/room-id.html If you come into the main enterance you will see security on your right that will be able to direct you to the room, unfortunately they will not let us put up signs to direct you.

Once a month the meetup meets for a topical discussion with a special guest. Special guest in the past have been members of the meetup, who spoke on a topic of their choice, or experts from outside, speaking on a topic of the expertise. If you want to speak, or know somebody who would like to speak to us, please contact me (https://www.meetup.com/sydneyatheists/members/11267158/), slots are either 1 hour or part there of to make up the hour.

We have the room booked all the way to 9pm so we can fit in more than one talk if need be, please contact me at least a month in advanced to book your talk so we can work out timings. The room has a projector and other AV, but these are only available if we have a student in attendance so please bear this in mind when planning your talk.