Dark Matter, Particle Physics & Ultracool Dwarf Stars

We're back with a new season of mind-blowing talks, awesome trivia and one of the city’s most unique 19+ nights out, where science gets social and curiosity takes the mic.

Every Nite features three 15-minute talks from scientists, experts, and curious thinkers who can explain big ideas in plain, human language. No decoder ring required. Just real knowledge, shared easily with humour and beer.

After each talk, the audience joins in a live Q&A. That’s when things heat up – questions, debates, surprising tangents and the occasional piece of scientific gear or space rock passed around the room.

Our featured talks for the month of March are in the fields of Particle Physics, Theoretical Nuclear Physics & Astrophysics. It's a Physics Bonanza! (Note: Talks are not necessarily in this order).

“The Search for Matter That Shouldn’t Exist” - Dark Matter

Dr. Jason Holt, TRIUMF, UBC

By watching where matter fails, we learn what holds the universe together. Dark Matter tells us that most of what exists can’t be seen. The edge of matter tells us where the visible world runs out.

Some forms of matter barely interact with anything at all. This talk explores the hunt for matter that almost never shows itself - particles that pass through atoms, planets, and people without leaving a trace. They aren’t visible and they aren’t easy to detect, but they quietly shape the structure of the universe. By studying how ordinary matter responds to these ghostly interactions, physicists uncover the hidden rules that govern reality - often predicting what must exist long before experiments can confirm it.

This talk is about how physicists predict invisible matter long before anyone can measure it.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Jason Holt is a theoretical nuclear physicist at TRIUMF and Adjunct faculty at McGill University. Established in 1968 at UBC, TRIUMF is Canada’s particle accelerator centre. Jason also holds degrees in Mathematics and English Literature. Jason has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and given over 150 invited talks internationally. His work has deep connections to some of the most compelling unanswered questions in beyond-standard-model physics.

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Ultracool Dwarfs: The Smallest Stars That Still Count

Anna Hughes, PhD, Astrophysics

Most stars in the galaxy aren’t blazing suns — they’re tiny, dim little embers called ultracool dwarfs (UCDs). These are the smallest stars that can still technically call themselves stars, sitting right on the edge of becoming something else entirely.

In this talk, we’ll explore why astronomers are obsessed with finding planets around these miniature suns in the search for life beyond Earth, and why these stars might be some of the strangest, most problematic hosts imaginable. They’re common, close, and full of planets…but they can also be chaotic, flare-happy, and not exactly life-friendly.

Along the way, we’ll zoom out into the bigger mystery: how we actually search for habitable worlds, what “life-friendly” even means, and whether life on Earth might have gotten its start from material blasted off Mars.

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ATLAS Detector Data

Surya Raman, Particle Physicist, UBC

Dertails coming.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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