From Atoms to Galaxies: A Night of Big Physics

Stephen will take us back to the very beginning. According to the Big Bang model, the Universe began around 14 billion years ago in a hot, dense state. After a few hundred thousand years it entered the cosmic dark ages, before the first stars and galaxies began to form. Gravity gradually assembled dark matter and gas into the structures that ignited those first stars. While observing this era is challenging due to extreme distances and the effects of cosmological redshift, the James Webb Space Telescope is now beginning to reveal this crucial period of cosmic history.

Alice is an Associate Professor in Materials Physics at the University of Sussex. Humans have been manipulating materials at the nanoscale for over 2000 years — but only recently have we understood why it works. Alice will explore the fascinating history of nanomaterials and how modern science is now harnessing them deliberately, from graphene-based technologies to materials that interact with living cells, opening up possibilities in electronics, energy and medicine.

Caley is a PhD researcher in particle physics from the University of Sussex. She will guide us through an exploration of elusive particles called neutrinos, how we catch them, and how they might explain why the universe exists at all.