Lectures on Tap - X-Rays Explained: The Sci-Fi Machines We’ve Already Built

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "X-Rays Explained: The Sci-Fi Machines We’ve Already Built"

🎤 Speaker: Emmanuel Aneke

Join us for a mind-expanding evening as Emmanuel Aneke pulls back the curtain on one of the most powerful—and least known—technologies on Earth: X-ray light sources.

When most people think “particle accelerator,” they imagine CERN or comic-book superheroes. In reality, there’s a global network of massive facilities that accelerate electrons to nearly the speed of light, generating X-ray beams a billion times brighter than the sun. These machines sound like science fiction, but they’re quietly transforming how we explore the tiniest building blocks of our world.

Emmanuel will guide us through the journey of a single electron as it zips through an accelerator, unpacking concepts like the Lorentz force and synchrotron radiation with clear, accessible analogies. Along the way, you’ll see how these light sources help scientists image the COVID-19 spike protein, map new materials atom by atom, and push the boundaries of physics, chemistry, and biology.

Emmanuel is a PhD candidate in Applied Physics at Northwestern University, working on experimental and computational accelerator physics at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.