Morehead Planetarium and Science Center

Carolina Science Cafe: The Big Bang
2026-02-03 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Haw River Tap & Table, 300 E Main St C, Carrboro, NC, 27510, United States
Reaching back to the Big Bang from one of the highest places on Earth

Scientists are pushing to the most extreme observing sites in the world to study the universe’s most ancient light. New telescopes and cameras harness cryogenic cooling power to deploy pixels chilled to near absolute zero to study the remnants of the Big Bang. During February’s Carolina Science Cafe, Dr. Eve Vavagiakis will introduce the cosmic microwave background and shine some light on how we use the universe as a laboratory for fundamental physics. In addition, she will discuss exciting new telescopes and what it’s like to deploy cutting-edge technologies on ancient stratovolcanoes in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

Designed for adults, Carolina Science Cafe is a free program that explores science topics making national and international headlines, offering the chance to meet the experts behind the work. This special program is hosted at Haw River Tap & Table in Carrboro on the first Tuesday of every month. Light appetizers are available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Dr. Eve Vavagiakis (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at Duke University and a previous postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. In her spare time, she enjoys anything active and outdoors, especially climbing mountains, even when there aren’t telescopes on top.

See the speaker’s work

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe: Songbirds
2026-03-03 18:00 - 19:00
Access to mates biased by parental favoritism in songbirds

In songbirds, the morphology of the vocal tract predicts song performance, and song performance affects access to mates. This, in turn, raises the question as to what causes this vocal-tract morphological variation. In March’s Carolina Science Cafe, Dr. Keith Sockman will discuss the recent analyses from his laboratory’s 20-year dataset on wild, free-ranging Lincoln’s sparrows at their montane field site in Colorado, which have revealed developmental constraints on the vocal tract, driven in part by parental favoritism toward some nestlings over their sibling nestmates.

Designed for adults, Carolina Science Cafe is a free program that explores science topics making national and international headlines, offering the chance to meet the experts behind the work. This special program is hosted at Haw River Tap & Table in Carrboro on the first Tuesday of every month. Light appetizers are available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Dr. Keith Sockman earned a PhD in Zoology in 2000 at Washington State University, studying reproductive flexibility in American kestrels. His postdoctoral work at The Johns Hopkins University focused on the neurobiology of mate choice and reproductive timing in songbirds. His initial appointment in the Department of Biology at UNC Chapel Hill was in 2004, at which point he started a long-term study on the behavioral ecology and reproductive decisions of wild songbirds. He enjoys cycling, camping, and spending time with his two teenagers.

See Dr. Sockman’s work

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe: Science Under Pressure
2026-04-07 18:00 - 19:00
(Megan Mendenhall / Office of Research Communications)

Science Under Pressure: What’s at Stake for Research at Carolina

UNC-Chapel Hill generates over $1 billion in research annually with discoveries that shape medicine, technology, and public health across North Carolina and beyond. However, the federal landscape that funds this work is shifting fast. Join UNC’s Vice Chancellor for Research, Dr. Penny Gordon-Larsen, for an inside look at what Carolina scientists are building, what’s at stake in Washington, and why it matters to all of us.

Designed for adults, Carolina Science Cafe is a free program that explores science topics making national and international headlines, offering the chance to meet the experts behind the work. This special program is hosted at Haw River Tap & Table in Carrboro on the first Tuesday of every month. Light appetizers are available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD, Vice Chancellor for Research and William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor in Nutrition

(Megan Mendenhall / Office of Research Communications)

As vice chancellor for research, Gordon-Larsen develops, sets strategic direction, and provides support for UNC’s $1.5 billion research enterprise. She is responsible for research infrastructure, operations, and regulatory compliance, research development, translation, and communications, as well as strategic research partnerships. In addition, she oversees 13 pan-campus, interdisciplinary research centers and institutes. She works across campus with the University’s research deans, center/ institute directors, and key institutional leaders to strategically advance Carolina’s research enterprise. She is an obesity researcher and has served as principal investigator on research projects totaling over $23.6 million and has served as a co-investigator on an additional $49.1M interdisciplinary research team projects with collaborators. Her NIH-funded research portfolio ranges from molecular and genetic to environmental and societal-level factors that influence health and obesity and its cardiometabolic consequences.

Gordon-Larsen served as president of The Obesity Society in 2015 and a member of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council from 2020 to 2023. She also served on the 2020–2030 Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research Thought Leaders Panel, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Strategic Plan Working Group, and the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Integration Working Group. She is on the Executive Committees for Research of the Association of American Universities and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and is currently serving on the Joint Associations Group (JAG) on Indirect Costs, a coalition of national organizations representing academic, medical, and independent research institutions.

More about UNC Research

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe: US Vaccination Programs
2026-05-05 18:00 - 19:00
US Vaccination Programs: Reasons for Optimism and Action

What unites Americans? Being vaccinated! More of us get vaccines than use smartphones, own cars, or watch reality TV. In May’s installation, Professor of Health Behavior Dr. Melissa B. Gilkey will share research on the parent advocates and clinical champions who make US vaccination programs possible. In addition, we will discuss ways to support these programs to ensure that we all have the opportunity to protect our families from measles, human papillomavirus (HPV) cancers, and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Designed for adults, Carolina Science Cafe is a free program that explores science topics making national and international headlines, offering the chance to meet the experts behind the work. This special program is hosted at Haw River Tap & Table in Carrboro on the first Tuesday of every month. Light appetizers are available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Melissa B. Gilkey, PhD, (she/her) is a Professor of Health Behavior in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. With research interests in cancer prevention and adolescent health, she studies ways to help healthcare providers communicate about vaccines, often with a focus on the HPV vaccine.

Learn more about Dr. Gilkey

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe: Dementia Diagnosis and Treatment
2026-06-02 18:00 - 19:00
Recent Advances in Dementia Diagnosis and Treatment

What is the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s? I have 2 family members with Alzheimer’s. What’s my risk like? I hear there’s a new blood test that can tell me if I have it; should I get it? How good is it? And, what’s the scoop on those new drugs to slow down Alzheimer’s? In June’s Carolina Science Cafe, Dr. Andrea Bozoki will answer these questions and more as she reviews some key concepts, explains how specialists approach the evaluation of cognitive decline, and describes the pros and cons of available treatment options.

Designed for adults, Carolina Science Cafe is a free program that explores science topics making national and international headlines, offering the chance to meet the experts behind the work. This special program is hosted at Haw River Tap & Table in Carrboro on the first Tuesday of every month. Light appetizers are available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Andrea Bozoki (she/her), Professor of Neurology

Dr. Bozoki completed her medical training at the State University of NY, Downstate followed by neurology residency and a cognitive neuroscience fellowship at the University of MI in Ann Arbor, beginning her career as an attending in 1999. She was on faculty at Michigan State University from 2001 to 2019, followed by a move to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August of 2020 to accept a position as Chief of the Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology Division. Currently, she divides her time between clinical care of patients and her work as Co-Lead of the Outreach and Engagement Core of the Duke/UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and as UNC Site Principal Investigator for the Lewy Body Disease Consortium and the ALL-FTD (Frontotemporal Dementia) Study.

More about Dr. Bozoki

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe: Philosophy of Science
2026-07-07 18:00 - 19:00
Three Insights from Philosophy of Science That Really Matter Right Now

Most of us have strong opinions about whether to “trust the science” and assume the reasons why science is worth trusting are obvious. But we rarely stop to ask whether what we assume about science is actually right, and how those assumptions are shaping the way we respond to some of today’s most contentious controversies about science—from vaccine skepticism to debates about biological categories to the rise of AI in research.

In this month’s Carolina Science Cafe, Dr. Katie Deaven unpacks some common assumptions about how scientific knowledge is built, where it can go wrong, and what follows for how we engage with these contemporary critiques of science. Drawing on work in the philosophy of science, we’ll see that these assumptions are oversimplified in ways that can actually get in the way of engaging effectively in these controversies. A little philosophy of science goes a long way, though, in helping us see exactly where they fall short and the more interesting and productive discussions lying in wait.

Designed for adults, Carolina Science Cafe is a free program that explores science topics making national and international headlines, offering the chance to meet the experts behind the work. This special program is hosted at Haw River Tap & Table in Carrboro on the first Tuesday of every month. Light appetizers are available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Dr. Katie Deaven (she/her), Teaching Assistant Professor of Philosophy, UNC-Chapel Hill

Katie Deaven is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill. She received her PhD from UW-Madison and specializes in the philosophy of science and philosophy of biology. She has taught courses in these areas as well as philosophy of technology and bioethics, and she loves designing events that bring philosophy to public audiences ranging from kindergarteners to adults.

More about Dr. Deaven

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe: GLP-1s
2026-08-04 18:00 - 19:00
What are GLP-1s?

See you at August’s Carolina Science Cafe! In this session, Dr. Jonathan Campbell of Duke University will present a brief history of the evolution of GLP-1 medications and where this field is heading.

Designed for adults, Carolina Science Cafe is a free program that explores science topics making national and international headlines, offering the chance to meet the experts behind the work. This special program is hosted at Haw River Tap & Table in Carrboro on the first Tuesday of every month. Light appetizers are available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Dr. Jonathan Campbell is an associate professor of medicine at Duke University and a member of the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute. His group studies how incretins like GLP-1 work to regulate metabolism in the context of health, diabetes, obesity, and related diseases.

More about Dr. Campbell’s work

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!
