Events archive

Presented by Johanna Nelson Weker. X-ray vision might sound like the stuff of superheroes and science fiction, but at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) it’s what allows scientists to peer inside batteries and see what makes them tick.

Staff scientist Johanna Nelson Weker gives a talk about pushing the battery revolution.

Presented by Sebastian Ellis. The nature of dark matter is one of the most captivating and fundamental open problems facing physicists today. Over many decades, we have collected overwhelming evidence for the existence of dark matter in the universe.

illustration bending a stream of dark matter

Presented by Lisa Rosenberg. How do poetic and scientific exploration create access and insight between domains? Can art created within the worlds of science and technology broaden expectations and possibilities for engagement? Formally trained in physics and poetry, Lisa Rosenberg...

Community Day is an evening of enriching activities to learn about science and have fun doing it.

Scientist wearing a hard had showing a young person how to do a science experiment.

Particle accelerators are used every day in a wide range of scientific, medical and industrial applications. But did you know that the task of operating these machines is far from mundane? For example, for every experiment at SLAC’s X-ray laser...

stillframe public lecture super human operator

Giant planets can be up to 13 times the mass of Jupiter, while the least massive stars are about 80 times the mass of Jupiter. In between are objects called “brown dwarfs” – too massive to be called planets, but...

In the film Diamonds are Forever, James Bond’s archnemesis uses diamonds to build a space-based laser weapon that can blow up stuff on Earth. SLAC physicist and Bond villain in training Emma McBride, however, uses lasers to mimic the extreme...

An audience sits on a patio listening to a science talk and demonstration.

Presented by Sebastien Boutet. SLAC's X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source, launched a new generation of light sources when it opened 10 years ago last month, with beams 10 billion times brighter than any before.

stillframe from public lecture video Seeing is Exploding

Presented by Margaux Lopez.

A visit to SLAC in October 2018 inspired Nitin Sawhney to create an original audio composition for two short visualization movies on the origins of the universe.

A battery walks into a bar...

How to Bend a Stream of Dark Matter and Make it Shine

A Different Physics: The Poetics of Discovery

Community Day 2019

Super-Human Operator: Controlling Accelerators with Machine Learning

Brown Dwarfs: Failed Stars or Overachieving Planets?

Diamonds are (not) forever

Seeing is Exploding: Snapping Biological Images with X-ray Laser Blasts

What on earth do Maseratis, ice hockey and corgi puppies have to do with telescopes?

Music for the Cosmos: An Exploration of Art & Physics