[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1890","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"466","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"700"}}]]
Last night, as part of a long-standing partnership between The EST/Sloan Project and The Secret Science Club, playwright Lucas Hnath and actor Jeff Biehl read a scene from Hnath’s new play, Isaac’s Eye, this year’s EST/Sloan Mainstage Production. Some four hundred science enthusiasts packed the Main Event Hall at The Bell House in Red Hook, Brooklyn for the club’s free monthly meeting. The well-received reading preceded a talk by Columbia University astrophysicist Jeremiah Ostriker on dark matter and dark energy.
Professor Ostriker’s talk drew on his new book, Heart of Darkness: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Invisible Universe, written with Cambridge University astronomer Simon Mitton, which had its publication date yesterday. As he traced the history of what we know about the universe, Ostriker notably name checked Isaac Newton, the lead character in Isaac’s Eye, for how he advanced our knowledge of celestial mechanics and gravitation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, for funding the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most ambitious and influential survey in the history of astronomy.
As part of the event last night, EST/Sloan gave away two festival passes, good for two tickets to any performance of Isaac’s Eye and to any of the readings and workshops in this year’s First Light Festival. There will be another ticket giveaway at the February 12 Secret Science Club meeting.