Shivaraj Kandhasamy will speak about the Big Bang and its Cosmic Messengers at 6 p.m. tonight at the Lusa Pastry Café as part of the monthly Oxford Science Café.
The Oxford Science Café is an event to promote intellectual discussions in our area. Each event features a professional in the world of science speaking on a topic of their choice. These speakers range from researchers to professors and other scholars.
The talks are part of a science conversation series organized by the Department of Physics at the University of Mississippi. Professor Marco Cavaglià works with Lusa Pastry Café on these events.
“I think it is very important for people to hear about science, especially science that we do here at the University of Mississippi,” Cavaglià said. “We host every month a science café with topics ranging from physics to biology, pharmacognosy to history of science, held by scientists and researches from UM and other US universities and research labs.”
The featured speakers lead a conversation about scientific theories, research, and many more topics in the ever-changing field. This month’s speaker will focus on Cosmology, while previous topics include the study of medicinal plants, space studies, among many others.
“What’s better than learning about the latest developments in science, in laymen terms, from people who actually do science?” Cavaglià asked. “It’s better than watching a NOVA documentary on TV. You can’t ask your TV set questions.”
This month’s feature is Shivaraj Kandhasamy, who will speak on the topic of The Big Bang and the implications it has for other scientific ideas.
“The talk is about the theory of Big Bang and various experimental evidence supporting the theory. In the talk I will also touch upon the recent result from BICEP 2 experiment claiming the detection of gravitational waves from the early universe,” Kandhasamy said.
Kandhasamy is currently working as a part of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, or LIGO, collaboration. LIGO is attempting to detect gravitational waves from various astrophysical objects such as binary neutron stars, block holes and possibly from the early universe.
Kandhasamy will discuss how we can physically explore the Big Bang, using cosmic microwave background radiation.
“In laymen terms, it can be considered the ‘afterglow’ of the Big Bang that expanded and cooled down to the present energy. The cosmic background radiation that we observed was generated when the universe was only about 380,000 years old,” Cavaglià explained. “So when we look at the cosmic background radiation, we’re looking back in time over 13 million years.”
For someone without a science background, the language may seem overwhelming. But the Science Café is for everyone, especially University of Mississippi students.
“Students in particular may benefit from science cafe lectures to complement what they learn in classes: We discuss topics that are often not covered in class,” Cavaglià said. “And you can do it while sipping good coffee and munching on a delicious pastry.”
There is also the benefit of hearing from professionals in the field of science on many different levels.
“As a non-pre-med chemistry major, it’s nice to have other scientific perspectives from professors and professionals that I may not have been able to interact with otherwise,” said Emily Anne Sharpe, junior chemistry student.
More information about the Oxford Science Café schedule can be found on the Ole Miss website or the Oxford Science Café Facebook page.
As the Oxford Science Café webpage stated: everyone is invited and children are welcomed.
“I like the idea that people leaving the Science Café will know a bit more about science, how scientists work and do research,” Cavaglià said. “When I see a kid in the audience, I always wonder if he or she will become a scientist one day.”
