Channel Title: Science & Cocktails Channel Description: Science & Cocktails is an initiative that brings science and entertainment closer together by creating a series of public lectures intertwined with music/art performances and smoky dry-ice chilled cocktails in your hand. Scientific knowledge is in general not considered accessible by many and, like any other form of information, it travels from researcher to journalist and is finally transmitted through the usual media channels (but perhaps slightly distorted). Science & Cocktails aims to create a relaxed platform where researchers and audience are on equal footing and conversations can be easily followed while sipping a Famous Penicillin cocktail side by side with your favourite scientist. <video> Looking deep inside the stars with Conny Aerts Description: Science & Cocktails is proud to present an episode with the world-renowned "starquake professor", starring 2022 Kavli Laureate in Astrophysics Conny Aerts. She is Professor at KU Leuven and at Radboud University Nijmegen, and is also an External Member of the Max Planck Society at Heidelberg. Conny Aerts is able to observe the un-observable. She succeeds to do so with waves created by stellar oscillations, sometimes nicknamed starquakes. What is a starquake? Is it similar to an Earthquake? Why can we see inside stars with the help of starquakes and what do we actually see? Or should we rather say hear... Conny Aerts will take you to the land of stellar oscillations and guide you through the forces of nature governing that land. She will illustrate how the detection and interpretation of stellar oscillations allow us to unravel the internal physics and chemistry of stars. She will also explain how starquakes deliver us a unique fantastic tool to determine how old the stars in our Milky Way are, including our own host, the Sun. Conny Aerts, a mathematician and astrophysicist, graduated from Antwerp University in 1988 and completed her PhD at KU Leuven in 1993. Throughout her career, she held various positions at KU Leuven, becoming a Full Professor in 2007. Concurrently, she led the Chair in Asteroseismology at Radboud University Nijmegen since 2004 and served as an External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society since 2019. A pioneer in asteroseismology, her research in stellar astrophysics includes stellar structure, evolution, and variable stars. Notably, she received an ERC Advanced Grant in 2008 and a second in 2016, making significant contributions to the field. Recognized with prestigious awards, including the 2012 Francqui Prize and the 2020 FWO Excellence Award, Conny is the first woman to receive these honors in Science & Technology since their inception. In 2022, she received the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics and leads the 2022 ERC Synergy grant 4D-STAR. Additionally, Conny actively contributes to education, mentoring, and serves on international committees, currently playing a significant role in the ESA space mission PLATO (2026+). For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ • LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/science-&-cocktails/ </video> <video> How migration really works. A talk by HEIN DE HAAS Description: As debates on immigration have reached fever pitch, so has political and media fearmongering. But what are the facts behind the headlines? Is global migration at an all-time high? What are the main changes in global migration patterns? What are the main driving forces of migration? Will climate change lead to mass migration? Why do border restrictions fail to stop migration? Drawing on three decades of scientific research, migration expert Hein de Haas destroys the myths that politicians, interest groups, and media spread about immigration. Ultimately, de Haas shows migration not as a problem to be solved, nor as a solution to a problem, but as it really is. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> In search of sexual pleasure with Marieke Dewitte Description: Are there gender differences in the experience of sexual pleasure? How does sexual arousal work between partners? How can we go beyond the shame and create more openness about sex? Pleasure is the most important reason to have sex and yet, this has been long ignored. Why is this? And where did the idea that women experience less sexual pleasure than men come from? It is remarkable that men and women experience sexual pleasure differently while their sexual systems work in the same way. There is a very clear pleasure gap in which men experience more pleasure than women. In this talk, researcher Marieke Dewitte will delve into the world of sexual desire, arousal and orgasm and will discuss the differences and similarities that appear between genders. According to Dewitte, within discussions on the pleasure gap, too much emphasis is being placed on prevention and gender differences. We need a more positive approach. During this Science & Cocktails, Marieke will talk about the implications and how we can achieve more gender equality when it comes to sexual pleasure. In addition, she will also explore sexual pleasure and arousal in romantic relationships. In the sexlab at Maastricht University, Dewitte researches how partners stimulate each other's sexual arousal. Her aim is to challenge shame, taboos and myths around sex and to take us on a journey of her findings on sexual pleasure. Marieke Dewitte is clinical psychologist-sexologist and currently works at Maastricht University. She studied at RINO Amsterdam and Gent University, where she also did her PhD on attachment in romantic relationships. Ze teaches several different courses, guest lectures and workshops on sexuality, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Her research focuses on sexual interaction between partners, relational dynamics in sexual arousal, attachment in relation to sexual responses and genital pain in women. In addition to her research, Marieke has worked as a sexologist at the University Hospital of Gent and Maastricht. Currently she is chief editor of the scientific magazine ‘Tijdschrift voor Seksuologie’ and Secretary General of the European Society of Sexual Medicine. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> The Science of "The Man from the 9 Dimensions" and Superstring Theory with Hirosi Ooguri Description: "The Man from the 9 Dimensions" is a movie on Superstring Theory, the leading candidate for the unified theory of forces and matters including gravity. Find out more about the film here: https://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/sp/9dimensions/en/ Science & Cocktails is proud to present a unique episode with theoretical physicist and string theorist superstar Hirosi Ooguri, who will be your guide into the mysteries of string theory, gravity and extra dimensions. Is the whole universe made out of vibrating strings? How does the world look like at microscopically small distances? How does the universe work? Professor Ooguri served as an advisor to the movie to ensure its scientific accuracy. The movie has received numerous prizes and honors including the 2016 Best Educational Production Award of the International Planetarium Society and the 2017 Best Full Feature Film and Best 3D Show of the Immersive Film Festival in Portugal. Professor Ooguri will explain the science behind the movie, which will take us from the microscopic world of elementary particles to the macroscopic world of the universe, and to its beginning - the Big Bang. After completing his graduate studies in two years, Ooguri became a tenured faculty member of the University of Tokyo in 1986. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Chicago before receiving his Ph.D. in 1989. After four years as an associate professor at Kyoto University, he returned to the United States in 1994 as a full professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2000, Ooguri moved to Caltech, where he is the inaugural holder of the Fred Kavli Chair. From 2010 to 2015, Ooguri served as the Deputy Chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy (equivalent to a vice dean of physical sciences). He led the establishment of the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2014, and has since served as its Founding Director. Ooguri was a Founding Principal Investigator of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo, and served as its Director from 2018 to 2023. The University of Tokyo honored him with the title of University Professor in 2024. Ooguri was a General Member of the Aspen Center for Physics for twenty years, serving as the Scientific Secretary, a Trustee, and the President. He has been the Chair of the Board of Trustees since 2021. He was elected an Honorary Trustee for Life in 2023. Ooguri has received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan, the Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics from the American Mathematical Society, the Simons Investigator Award from the Simons Foundation, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Hamburg Prize and the Humboldt Research Award in Germany, the Benjamin Lee Distinguished Professorship in Korea, and the Nishina Memorial Prize and the Chunichi Cultural Award in Japan. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Mathematical Society. Ooguri's popular science books have sold over 300,000 copies in Japan, and one of them won the Kodansha Prize for Science Books. He also supervised a science movie, which was selected for the Best Educational Production Award from the International Planetarium Society and has been translated into six languages. Event held in English and with the generous support of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> The Secrets of Gravity with Claudia de Rham Description: Science & Cocktails presents an exciting event about the weakest force in the universe: gravity! Your guide into the unknown is Claudia de Rham, theoretical physicist and author of the book The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity. Is gravity really a force? Does it connect everything in the universe? Is gravity, according to Einstein, the ultimate perspective on what space and time are? Why is it so important? Claudia will narrate her captivating adventure, navigating through the different meanings of gravity, intertwined with her personal life experience challenging gravity and pushing the limits of knowledge. The brightest minds in physics, from Newton and Einstein to Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, have yet to uncover gravity’s secrets, but their knowledge allowed Claudia to unveil what gravity may look like if it had a sense of humor. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from a world leader in theoretical physics, as she unravels the turbulent tales of her success. Claudia de Rham is a theoretical physicist based at Imperial College London. Her work at the interface of gravity, cosmology and particle physics won her the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in 2020. She is tireless campaigner against the underrepresentation of girls in physics and frequently speaks in schools and for other organisations about diversity in the sciences. Her book The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity tells the fascinating personal story of de Rham’s quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. An aspiring astronaut whose opportunity to go into space was unexpectedly snatched away from her, de Rham has instead played with gravity as a diver, a pilot and – above all – an award-winning researcher who, in redirecting her energy towards physics, made a breakthrough at the very frontiers of gravitational science. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> Trauma matters with Bernet Elzinga Description: What exactly is trauma and what is the impact of trauma on mind and brain? Under which circumstances are people most vulnerable for the consequences of trauma exposure? What are the key factors that can buffer the impact of trauma? Can traumatic experiences and its effects on mind and brain be transmitted from one generation to the next? What does it essentially mean to recover from trauma? Exposure to trauma is a relatively common experience. With its ancients roots, our stress system is a highly efficient and functional system and the majority of individuals recovers from experiencing trauma after an initial period of shock and distress. However, under certain circumstances traumatic events may leave long-lasting traces in mind and brain, with major consequences for wellbeing and functioning in daily life. This happens especially when traumatic events occur early in life and are chronic. With trauma being so prevalent these days, several questions need to be addressed in order to prevent widespread negative consequences, such as: under which circumstances are people most vulnerable for trauma and its negative consequences, what are the key factors that can buffer the impact of trauma, and how can we prevent traumatic experiences from being transmitted from one generation to the next? Prof. dr. Bernet Elzinga is professor of Stress-related disorders at Leiden University and head of the section Clinical Psychology at Leiden University. With her research group she investigates the long-term consequences of trauma and stress on mind and brain. In her research she integrates different perspectives, from epidemiology, brain research and experimental psychology. She is particularly interested in intergenerational themes in the context of trauma and depression. Bernet Elzinga is trained as an experimental and clinical psychologist and philosopher (UvA) and psychotherapist and did her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. For her research she has received several prestigious grants from NWO and she is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> The clock in your cells that controls your life with Joseph Takahashi Description: Science & Cocktails is proud to present a unique episode of its series with Joe Takahashi, Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience, and the man who found the "Clock" gene in your DNA. He will tell you how every cell in your body "ticks" at a given rhythm and how paying attention to it can improve your health. All this after Bøgh/Bülow takes the stage. How do circadian clocks function? How does the circadian clock affect your life? What is the physiological role of the circadian clock in animals and humans? How are the various clocks in our body orchestrated and are there consequences for desynchrony of our clocks caused by jetlag or shift work? We live on a planet with a 24-hour day-night cycle that determines the energetic cycle of essentially all forms of life. While plants harvest energy from light in the day and store energy at night, our bodies also work in daily energy cycles of activity and rest, feeding and fasting. To anticipate the daily cycles on our planet, living systems have evolved internal biological clocks that predict the 24-hour passage of time. These clocks are known as “circadian clocks” from the Latin “circa” (about) and “dian” (day). The laboratory of Joseph Takahashi discovered the first gene that controls circadian rhythms in mouse and humans, known as the “Clock” gene. This gene regulates our activity and sleep and plays a role in many parts of the body including metabolism, the immune system and heart function. All of our major organs in the body have their own circadian clock, so essentially every cell in our bodies “ticks” according to circadian rhythms. Takahashi and his colleagues showed that paying attention to your circadian rhythm has many health benefits. Takahashi will focus on the role of calories, fasting and circadian aligned feeding as critical factors for aging, healthspan and longevity. Joseph S. Takahashi, PhD is the Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience, Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He joined UT Southwestern in 2009. His research interests are the molecular mechanism of circadian clocks, neuroscience, and the genetic basis of behavior. Dr. Takahashi pioneered the use of genetics in the mouse as a tool for discovery of genes underlying neurobiology and behavior, and his discovery of the mouse and human Clock genes led to a description of a conserved circadian clock mechanism in animals. Dr. Takahashi was born in Tokyo, Japan (US Citizen) and grew up in Burma, Italy and the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. He graduated from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, with a BA in Biology; did his graduate studies with Michael Menaker at UT Austin and University of Oregon, Eugene (PhD in 1981). He was Pharmacology Research Associate at the NIMH and joined the faculty of Northwestern University in 1983 until 2009. He is the author of more than 340 scientific publications and the recipient of many awards including the Honma International Prize in Biological Rhythms Research in 1986, W. Alden Spencer Award in Neuroscience from Columbia University in 2001, Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Sleep Research Society in 2012, and the Gruber Neuroscience Prize in 2019. He was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000, Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and Member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2014. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/science-&-cocktails/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> FERTILITY: why didn't anyone teach me this? With Joyce Harper and Lucy Van De Wiel Description: What role do our reproductive systems play for our mental and physical well-being? Why was the anatomy of the clitoris described only recently? What impact do life transitions such as menopause and andropause have on individuals? Does it make sense to freeze your eggs? How can we celebrate our (non) reproductive bodies when they are so often presented as too fertile or not fertile enough? How can we navigate the new reproductive options that are made available to us? How can we celebrate our reproductive bodies through all its phases and complexities? Part 1: Why didn’t anyone teach me this? Understanding your reproductive body - Joyce Harper Our reproductive systems are not merely mechanisms for pro-creation: they are central to our mental and physical well-being, regulated by a complex interplay of hormones. Yet, our understanding of this crucial aspect of health remains surprisingly elementary. It's time we illuminate the complexities and nuances of our reproductive bodies, from the onset of puberty right through to our twilight years. The menstrual cycle, governing women's lives for roughly 40 years, is an odyssey of fluctuating sex hormones leading to ovulation and menstruation. Yet, our educational system rarely covers what constitutes a normal cycle or common conditions like endometriosis or PCOS. Sex education typically focuses on contraception, leaving gaps in understanding fertility, planning for pregnancy, and fertility decline in both genders. With global fertility rates declining, these discussions are crucial. As we age, hormonal changes signal menopause and andropause. How do these transitions affect individuals? It's time to openly discuss and appreciate our reproductive bodies. Joyce Harper is an Internationally renowned, award-winning educator, author, podcaster, academic, and scientist. She is Professor of Reproductive Science at University College London in the Institute for Women’s Health where she is Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group. She has worked in the fields of fertility, genetics and reproductive science since 1987, written over 240 scientific papers and published three books. Her topics of interest are menopause, reproductive health education and fertility treatments. She is leading the development of a UK Menopause Education and Support Programme with support from key organizations.She is co-founder of the UK Fertility Education Initiative (www.fertilityed.uk) and founder of the International Reproductive Health Education Collaboration. She is working with schools in the UK and globally to help deliver reproductive health education. Her latest book, “Your Fertile Years, What you need to know to make informed choices”, was published in 2021 by Sheldon Press. She also hosts the podcast “Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me This?”, and is available on all podcast channels. Part 2: Freezing Fertility – Lucy van de Wiel The egg, the largest–and coolest–human cell, is at the heart of female fertility. Yet beyond a biological function, this cell has also acquired a political life now that eggs may be frozen in time, exchanged between women and shipped around the globe. Governments across the world govern what women can and cannot do with their eggs, while a growing financialised fertility industry is driven by a vision of a future in which many more people rely on technologies to have children. In the face of all this, new technologies like egg freezing become meaningful in the context of old stories about gender, ageing and agency. Lucy van de Wiel is a Lecturer and Postgraduate Research Director in Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College London. She has founded and is chair of the Reproduction Research Cluster at King’s. Her research focuses on the introduction of new reproductive technologies such as egg freezing and time-lapse embryo selection. She explores how these technologies give insight into broader developments within the IVF sector, including the datafication of reproduction and the financialization of fertility. She has published an Open Access monograph on egg freezing with New York University Press titled Freezing Fertility: Oocyte Cryopreservation and the Gender Politics of Aging. Freezing Fertility has inspired a feature documentary of the same title produced by VPRO Backlight (Tegenlicht). For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ • LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/science-&-cocktails/ </video> <video> Do you have free will? with Axel Cleeremans Description: Free will — the capacity to do as we choose — is a central aspect of human agency. Each one of us thinks (perhaps to different degrees) and experiences that we have agency and that we are the actors of our own existence. And yet, neuroscience also tells us that everything that we do is determined by the activity of our brain. Reconciling these two perspectives has proven suprisingly difficult from a philosophical perspective, and elusive from a neuroscientific approach. Here, we will explore the main tenets of two controversial ideas: The idea that there simply is no free will (hard determinism), as defended by Robert Sapolsky, and the idea that free will evolved (Kevin Mitchell). As Dennett put it, the real question is: “How we go from doing things for reasons to having reasons for doing things?" Axel Cleeremans (Ph.D. 1991, Carnegie Mellon) is a Research Director with the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS) and aprofessor of Cognitive Psychology at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium), where he heads the Consciousness, Cognition and Computation (CO3) Group and directs the Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences. His research is essentially dedicated to understanding the mechanisms of consciousness and the differences between information processing with and without consciousness. Cleeremans argues that consciousness is the result of unconscious learning mechanisms through which the brain continuously redescribes its interactions with itself, with the the world and with other people. To explore these issues, Cleeremans has obtained two prestigious advanced grants from the European Research Council, the first (2014-2019) dedicated to the "how" of consciousness (its mechanisms), the second (2022-2027) dedicated to the "why" of consciousness (its functions). Cleeremans has acted as president of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology and of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. In 2020 he founded the Association of ERC Grantees, which he continues to preside. A member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, he is also the Field Editor-in-Chief of Frontiers in Psychology. In 2015, we was awarded the prestigious Ernest-John Solvay prize for human sciences by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research. Axel Cleeremans has authored and edited several books as well as numerous articles dedicated to consciousness and implicit cognition. In 2009, he edited, together with Tim Bayne and Patrick Wilken, the "Oxford Companion to Consciousness". For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/science-&-cocktails/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> Intelligence, Stupidity, Outer-Space, and the Mysteries of the Puzzle with David Krakauer Description: Earthlings, this episode is about intelligence with superstar scientist David Krakauer, professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Why has intelligence evolved on earth? What is the nature of collective intelligence and stupidity? What is the connection between a puzzle, mathematics, and expertise? How is machine intelligence different from human intelligence? How are secret codes and alien signals related? What do communication with aliens, science, cryptology, and solving puzzles have in common? The answer is an effort to measure intelligence. Over the course of several millennia humanity has obsessed over its own intelligence and, in the process, achieved incredible levels of stupidity. At the core of our understanding of both intelligence and stupidity are the roles of facts, rules, and algorithms. In the last few years, the rise of machine learning, discoveries in the study of collective intelligence, and our understanding of nonhuman life, have led to a revolution in our understanding of cognition and a great divergence in the categories of sentient beings. David Krakauer will discuss recent ideas and discoveries in the science of intelligence as a complex system -- from tool use to the Rubik's cube - and report on new grounds for optimism and growing sources of despair. David Krakauer is the President and William H. Miller Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute. His research explores the evolution of intelligence and stupidity on Earth. This includes studying the evolution of genetic, neural, linguistic, social, and cultural mechanisms supporting memory and information processing, and exploring their shared properties. He served as the founding Director of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the Co-Director of the Center for Complexity and Collective Computation, and Professor of Mathematical Genetics all at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Krakauer has been a visiting fellow at the Genomics Frontiers Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, a Sage Fellow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of Santa Barbara, a long-term Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and visiting Professor of Evolution at Princeton University. He was included in Wired Magazine’s 2012 Smart List as one of fifty people “who will change the world,” and Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2016 list of visionary leaders advancing global research and business. Event held in English with the generous support of the Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena at the University of Amsterdam. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> Well being is a skill: neuroscience for a healthier mind with Richard Davidson Description: Richard Davidson is William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Founder & Director of the Center for Healthy Minds (https://centerhealthyminds.org/), University of Wisconsin-Madison. Founder and Chief Visionary for Healthy Minds Innovations, Inc. (https://hminnovations.org/) Davidson received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Psychology in 1976. Davidson’s research is broadly focused on the neural bases of emotion and emotional style and methods to promote human flourishing including meditation and related contemplative practices. He has published over 573 articles, numerous chapters and reviews and edited 14 books. He is the author (with Sharon Begley) of "The Emotional Life of Your Brain" published in 2012 and co-author with Daniel Goleman of “Altered Traits” published in 2017. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2006. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2017 and appointed to the Governing Board of UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) in 2018. In 2014, Davidson founded the non-profit, Healthy Minds Innovations, which translates science into tools to cultivate and measure well-being. Science & Cocktails is proud to present an episode with Richard Davidson, world-renowned psychologist, psychiatrist and neuroscientist obsessed with trying to understand what is well-being and how to train our brains towards healthier minds. He is the director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a close friend of the Dalai Lama, and has placed so many electrodes on the brain of monks to try to understand the effects of meditation and mindfulness. What is the evidence suggesting that well-being is in global decline? What are the four key pillars of well-being? What is the evidence that well-being can be learned? What are some of the neural and biological changes produced by different forms of meditation practice? What is the promise of mobile digital tools to scale the practice of the skills of well-being? Just like being physically in shape means regular exercise, supporting one’s emotional well-being begins with a training program - for the mind. In this talk, world renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Richard J. Davidson discusses the scientific concept of neuroplasticity and how research in the lab confirms that well-being is a skill that can be taught. By learning and practicing the skills associated with awareness, connection, insight, and purpose - anyone can have a healthier mind, despite their external circumstances. Based on four decades of contemplative neuroscientific research, Dr. Davidson outlines a path to well-being for anyone in this highly relevant episode of Science and Cocktails. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> How Religion evolved and why it endures with Robin Dunbar Description: Science & Cocktails is proud to present an episode with Robin Dunbar, world-renowned evolutionary psychologist working at the social and evolutionary neuroscience group at the University of Oxford. He has made foundational contributions to the understanding of bonding in primates and humans which led to the notion of a “social brain” and “social neuroscience”. He has written books on the evolution of human beings, the evolution of language and the evolution of religion. Why are humans the only species to have religions? Does religion provide genuine evolutionary benefits? Why are humans uniquely susceptible to the “mystical stance”? When did religion first evolve? Why do religions keep reinventing themselves? Religion is the one thing that clearly differentiates humans from all other animals. That in itself raises a whole series of questions: Why did religion evolve? When did the capacity for religion first evolve? What cognitive abilities allow humans to be religious but apes not? Is religion at all beneficial? In this episode Robin Dunbar will argue that religion evolved to help bond our unusually large social groups, and became especially important after we started living in increasingly large villages and towns from around 8000 years ago. He will suggest that religion built on very ancient psychological traits that, while playing a crucial role in creating both friendships and bonded communities, can, under certain circumstances, give rise to what he calls “the mystical stance” – a capacity that, through trance states, allows us to feel that we engage directly with mysterious forces that control the universe. Leaving us with one tantalizing question: did the Neanderthals die out because they weren’t religious? Robin Dunbar is Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Magdalen College, and an elected Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Finnish Academy of Science & Letters and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His principal research interests focus on the evolution of sociality (with particular reference to primates and humans). He is best known for the social brain hypothesis, the gossip theory of language evolution and Dunbar’s Number (the limit on the number of manageable relationships we can have). His publications include 34 authored and edited books and more than 500 journal articles and book chapters. His popular science books include The Trouble With Science; Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language; The Science of Love and Betrayal; Human Evolution; Evolution: What Everyone Needs To Know; Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships; How Religion Evolved; and The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> The bacteria and the brain with Iris Sommer Description: Can you eat yourself smart, or rather dumb? What resides in your intestines, and how does it affect your mood? Can a healthy gut flora make you more resilient to stress? And what do gut bacteria have to do with Parkinson's disease? The microbiome, the diverse collection of microorganisms in the gut, is crucial for our health. Moreover, it has a significant impact on the brain, and thus our mental health. As science unravels the connection between gut flora, the immune system, and the brain, it becomes increasingly clear that the zoo in our intestines plays a vital role in the development of psychiatric and neurological disorders. Will antidepressants soon be replaced by donor poop in capsule form? Will we soon be prescribed a Parkinson's or Alzheimer's diet? And how can your diet make you more stress-resistant during exam periods? Iris Sommer works as a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at the University Medical Center Groningen. With her team, she strives to make a difference for people with complex brain disorders. Her current research focuses on the use of automatic speech analysis for psychiatry, for which she recently received two major grants from the EU. In 2021, she was named a Distinguished Lorentz Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Amsterdam, and in 2022, she received the Huijbrechtsen Prize for Science and Society. In 2023, she and her team were at Lowland for Shitty Science, a study on the role of gut flora in personality, and she co-hosted the podcast series In de Diepte; Het Brein with BNR news radio. Additionally, she is an author, and her previous books, "Haperende Hersenen" (Stuttering Brains) and "Het Vrouwenbrein" (The Female Brain), were bestsellers. She recently wrote "Voed je Brein" (Feed Your Brain) and "De Bacterie en het Brein" (The Bacteria and the Brain), in which she explains the relationship between nutrition, gut flora, and the brain, the topic for this evening. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> Why do people kill? Copenhagen edition with Alette Smeulers Description: Science & Cocktails is proud to present a unique episode about some of the worst sides of human experience and what science has managed to uncover about the nature of our dark side. Alette Smeulers, professor at the University of Groningen, has spent a lifetime trying to understand why people commit massive atrocities, and will tell you what she found out. Alette Smeulers is professor at the University of Groningen. She is specialized in perpetrators of international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as well as terrorism. In her research she takes an inter- and multidisciplinary approach. She has published widely in the field. Her most recent book on Perpetrators of mass atrocities: terribly and terrifyingly normal? is published by Routledge (2024). Together with Nicola Quaedvlieg, she also made a podcast series on perpetrators of mass atrocities, called Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal? The war in Palestine; the war in Ukraine; repressive regimes which torture, rape and kill; the terror attacks all over the world – these are all crimes that shock the human conscience and horrify us into disbelief and yet they dominate our news channels. Who are the people behind this violence and why do they torture, rape and kill? What kind of people are they? What motivates them to do this? How do they see their own crimes? What makes them resort to violence? But also: How can we stop them? When we see the news we tend to distance ourselves from the perpetrators as well as the crimes and argue that they, the perpetrators must be very different from us ordinary normal human beings. We tend to believe that they must have a violent past, long criminal records or mental deficiencies otherwise they would not be able to do this. But: Is that really the case? Are perpetrators born to be violent and cruel? Or are they made that way? And if so: by whom, how and why? Or are they normal after all? ‘Terribly and terrifyingly normal’ as the famous philosopher Hannah Arendt suggested when, during the sixties, she witnessed the trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organizers and executioners of the Holocaust. But if that were true: does that mean that we could all become perpetrators of mass atrocities? For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/science-&-cocktails/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video> <video> Physics at the end of the Universe with Katie Mack Description: Science & Cocktails is proud to present an episode with Katie Mack, world-renowned astrophysicist and cosmologist, Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, who will tell you about all the possibilities for how the universe will end. Dr. Katherine (Katie) Mack is a theoretical astrophysicist who studies a range of questions in cosmology, the study of the universe from beginning to end. She currently holds the position of Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, where she carries out research on dark matter and the early universe and works to make physics more accessible to the general public. She is the author of the book "The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)" and has written for a number of popular publications, such as Scientific American, Slate, BBC’s Science Focus, Sky & Telescope, and Cosmos Magazine. What do we know about the history of the universe? How do we know the universe will end? What are some of the possibilities for the end of the universe? How are astronomers studying our cosmic future? How does experimental physics help us understand the fate of the cosmos? The Big Bang theory tells the story of the beginning of the Universe, our cosmic home for the last 13.8 billion years. But how does the story end? I’ll share what modern astrophysics tells us about the ultimate fate of the cosmos, and what the catastrophic destruction of all reality would look like to anyone still around to see it. For more science visit: • Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/ • Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scienceandcocktailsglobal/ </video>

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Science & Cocktails is an initiative that brings science and entertainment closer together by creating a series of public lectures intertwined with music/art performances and smoky dry-ice chilled cocktails in your hand.

Scientific knowledge is in general not considered accessible by many and, like any other form of information, it travels from researcher to journalist and is finally transmitted through the usual media channels (but perhaps slightly distorted). Science & Cocktails aims to create a relaxed platform where researchers and audience are on equal footing and conversations can be easily followed while sipping a Famous Penicillin cocktail side by side with your favourite scientist.

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