🌑 Our Moon, Ourselves ⚕️ – SOT – Family Friendly

This is the April 2025 meeting of Science on Tap(SOT).

It is sponsored by the Colorado Springs Science Center project https://www.coolscience.org/ SOT https://www.coolscience.org/science-on-tap.html is held the Second Monday of every month.

April 14th, 2025

* 6:00 p.m. we get together for casual conversation and getting food on order
* 6:30 PM. actual presentation starts

Location: Jack Quinn’s downtown Colorado Springs

🌑 Our Moon, Ourselves ⚕️

**Speaker:** Rebecca Boyle, Science Journalist and Author, Contributing Editor at Scientific American

**Summary:**The Moon is one of Earth’s most unique features, and it shapes all of the other things that make our planet special, from its geology to its multitudes of life, including us. Life might not have evolved on Earth at all without the Moon’s stabilizing gravitational influence and powerful tides. After we humans showed up, the Moon quickly became our primary way of telling time and organizing our lives. It shaped our understanding of our place in the universe, and helped us to invent forms of religious devotion and the process of science. The Moon plays a central role in our most famous wars, our greatest adventures, and our shared futures. And now, humans are trying to go back to the Moon’s surface — soon, and with plans to stay. We owe ourselves a thoughtful consideration of the Moon’s role in our history and our future. And what do we owe to our spectral satellite? ​

**Speaker Bio:**
*As a journalist, Rebecca Boyle has reported from particle accelerators, genetic sequencing labs, bat caves, the middle of a lake, the tops of mountains, and the retractable domes of some of Earth’s largest telescopes. Her first book, OUR MOON: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are (Random House, 2024) is a new history of humanity’s relationship with the Moon, which Rebecca has not yet visited on assignment. OUR MOON is a national bestseller and was long-listed for the National Book Award; is a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; and is one of the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2024.*

*Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., Rebecca is a contributing editor at Scientific American, a contributing writer at Quanta Magazine, and a columnist at Atlas Obscura. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, The Atlantic, and many other publications. Rebecca’s work has been anthologized multiple times in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series, and she is the recipient of multiple writing awards.*

More logistics background:

I have been going to Science on Tap for almost 14 years now. They are usually very well done and I enjoy them. Most topics are acceptable for kids, but most are NOT targeted to kids. My youngest son started going when he was 8, and he usually got something out of the presentation and questions. So use your own judgement if your kid(s) would be interested, and patient enough, to sit through the discussion. You can ask questions in the group setting, since about half the time devoted to questions. Or at the end, the speakers usually hang out for quite awhile after to answer questions. And of course, often “we” hang out and talk also.

There are usually an intellectual bunch of people who attend.

Hope to see you there for some enjoyable conversation..