Science Cafe is held the first Wednesday of every month at McMullan's Irish Pub (4650 W. Tropicana Ave). Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with trivia and the presentation starting promptly at 7 p.m.

Bring friends and family for informal public discussions with leading scientists on interesting topics. Grab some dinner while listening.

Jared P. Bruce, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry, will be giving a talk titled "Solar Refineries at Atomic Interfaces."

Abstract of Talk: Enough light reaches the Earth’s surface in one hour to power our entire world for a year. If we were capable of harnessing a fraction of this potential, we would fundamentally change our energy consumption, all while limiting our environmental impact. In this talk, I will introduce you to the work we are pursuing in our lab at UNLV to control, atom-by-atom, new materials that will be capable of using light to convert greenhouse gases back to high-value chemical building blocks. These building blocks can create essential products, from clean-burning fuels to medicines and clothing. We will explore how the surfaces of these materials are intimately tied to the efficiency of the solar conversion process and how our fundamental studies will drive innovation in future solar technologies.