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.

Pamela Burnley, Ph.D., a professor in UNLV's Department of Geoscience will be giving a talk titled, "How to Fold a Rock." 

Abstract: 

Rocks are great materials for countertops, buildings and bridges because they are strong and rigid.  Rocks can be broken up with jackhammers and cut up with abrasive saws, but normally humans cannot fold rocks up the way we fold up metals to make binder clips and car doors. However, we see lots of evidence that nature can bend rocks into arches and troughs and sometimes fold rocks up like pasta noodles. How does this work? In our lab we study the ductile deformation of rocks using high pressures and temperatures and sometimes super strong X-rays to look inside the rock to see what it’s doing.